%.■;' 







* 












V > e ♦ 



^. 



' ^ <. x ^ ~* A 






V 



* ,^ 






^^^. 






■ \ ., s* «> ^' V 



-> 



<" 



xO'=C<. 



.V- 






4" 'V 






-\'< -• ■ -4.. ' 



^•^. 






' :> <, ^ '^ «!,*^ , <" 






;- "^A V* 



-6" 






it- 









'/ ^^ °^yiv^.- ^% 










aV </>„ 



















<*. 






^0 o. 



,^^ -^^^ 




Oo. 









- A^ '- ■< - ", ''^^ - ' 




^■5 



















•^^ 












\\ 




.^^ 


<?• 


J 


' ^*^' 
,.0^ ,<.\ 


' ' ♦, 


.% 





TIME AND ITS 
MEASUREMENT 



BY 



JAMES ARTHUR 



REPRINTED FROM 

POPULAR MECHANICS MAGAZINE 



Copyright, 190!t, bv H. H. Windsor 



CHICAGO, 1909 



/\ 



©CI.A2516(>*e 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

HISTORIC OUTLINE 

Time as an abstraction. — Ancient divisions of day and night. — Night watches of the 
Old Testament. — Quarter days and hours of the New Testament. — Shadow, or 
sun time. — Noon mark dials. — Ancient dials of Herculaneum and Pompeii. — 
Modern dials. — Equation of time. — Three historic methods of measuring time. — 
"Time-boy" of India. — Chinese clepsydra. — Ancient weather and time stations. — 
Tower of the winds, Athens, Greece Page 13 



CHAPTER II 

JAPANESE CLOCKS 

Chinese and Japanese divisions of the day. — Hours of varying length. — Setting clocks 
to length of daylight.- — Curved line dials. — Numbering hours backwards and 
strange reasons for same. — Daily names for sixty day period. — Japanese clock 
movements practically Dutch. — Japanese astronomical clock. — Decimal numbers 
very old Chinese. — Original vertical dials founded on "bamboo stick" of Chinese 
clepsydra. — Mathematics and superstition. — Mysterious disappearance of hours 1, 
2, 3. — Eastern mental attitude towards time. — Japanese methods of striking hours 
and half hours Page 25 



CHAPTER III 

MODERN CLOCKS 

De Vick's clock of 1364. — Original "verge" escapement. — "Anchor" and "dead beat" 
escapements. — "Remontoir" clock. — The pendulum. — Jeweling pallets. — Antique 
clock with earliest application of pendulum. — Turkish watches. — Correct designs 
for public clock faces. — Art work on old watches. — 24-hour watch. — Syrian and 
Hebrew hour numerals. — Correct method of striking hours and quarters. — De- 
sign for 24-hour dial and hands. — Curious clocks. — Inventions of the old clock- 
makers Page 37 



CHAPTER IV 

ASTRONOMICAL FOUNDATION OF TIME 

A^stronomical motions on which our time is founded. — Reasons for selecting the 
sidereal day as a basis for our 24-hour day. — Year of the seasons shorter than the 
zodiacal year.- — Precession of the equinoxes. — Earth's rotation most uniform mo- 
tion known to us. — Time stars and transits. — Local time. — The date line. — Stand- 
ard time. — Beginning and ending of a day. — Proposed universal time. — Clock dial 
for universal time and its application to business. — Next great improvement in 
clocks and watches indicated. — Automatic recording of the earth's rotation. — 
Year of the seasons as a unit for astronomers. — General conclusions Page 53 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Page 

ortrait of James Arthur 8 

iterpretation of Chinese and Japanese 

Methods of Time Keeping 15 

ortable Bronze Sundial from the Ruins 

of Herculaneum 16 

oon-Mark Sundials 17 

'odern Horizontal Sundial for Latitude 

40°-43' 18 

he Earth, Showing Relation of Dial 

Styles to Axis 18 

odern Sundial Set Up in Garden 18 

rime-Boy" of India 19 

ion-woo-et-low," or "Copper Jars 

Dropping Water" — Canton, China 19 

Modern Sand Glass or "Hour Glass".... 20 
ower of the Winds, Athens, Greece. . . .20 

ey to Japanese Figures 25 

ipanese Dials Set for Long and Short 

Days ,25 

ipanese Striking Clock with Weight and 

Short Pendulum 26 

ipanese Striking Clock with Spring, 

Fusee and Balance 26 

ipanese Clock with Vertical Dial, 

Weight and Balance 27 

ipanese Clock with Vertical Dial Having 
Curved Lines, Weight and Balance. .. .27 

ipanese Vertical Dials 28 

ipanese Striking Clock with Two Bal- 
ances and Two Escapements 29 

Pwelve Horary Branches" and "10 Ce- 
lestial Stems" as Used in Clocks 30 



Page 

Key to "12 Horary Branches" and "10 Ce- 
lestial Stems" 30 

Dial of Japanese Astronomical Clock.... 31 
Use of "Yeng Number" and Animal 

Names of Hours 32 

Public Dial by James Arthur 37 

Dial of Philadelphia City Hall Clock 37 

Verge Escapement 37 

De Vick's Clock of 1364 38 

Anchor Escapement 38 

American Anchor Escapement 39 

Dead Beat Escapement 39 

Remontoir Clock by James Arthur 40 

Remontoir Clock Movement 40 

Antique Clock, Entirely Hand-Made. .41, 42 
Double-Case Watch of Repousse Work. 42 

Triple-Case Turkish Watches 43 

Watch Showing Dutch Art Work 43 

Triple-Case Turkish Watch 44 

Watches Showing Art Work 45 

Antique Watch Cock 46 

"Chinese" Watch 45 

Musical Watch, Repeating Hours and 

Quarters 47 

Syrian Dial 47 

Hebrew Numerals 48 

Twenty-four Hour Watch 48 

Domestic Dial by James Arthur 49 

Local Time— Standard Time— Beginning 

and Ending of the Day 57 

Universal Time Dial Set for Four Places. 61 




James Arthur 



Mr. Arthur is an enthusiastic sciciilist, a successful inventor and extensive 
traveler, who has for years liecii iiiakiiifr a study of clocks, watches, and time-meas- 
uring devices. He is not only a fjreat aiitliority on this subiect, but his collection of 
over 1500 timepieces gatliered from all parts of tlie frlobc lias been pronounced the tin- 
est collection m the world. Mr. Artliur is ,i ))Kasin- exception to the average busi- 
ness man, lor he has found time to doa laif,-e ainonnt of study and research alon" 
various sciciititic lines in addition to conductint;: an important manufacturing busi- 
ness in Ne%v York City, of which he is president. Mr. Arthur is 67 years of age.- 
H. H. Windsor. " 



CHAPTER I 
HISTORIC OUTLINE 

Time as an abstraction. — Ancient divisions of day and 
night. — Night watches of the Old Testament. — Quarter 
days and hours of the New Testament. — Shadow or sun 
time. — Noon mark dials. — Ancient dials of Herculaneum 
and Pompeii. — Modern Dials. — Equation of time. — ^Three 
historic methods of measuring time. — **Time-boy" of India. — 
Chinese clepsydra. — Ancient weather and time stations. — 
Tower of the winds, Athens, Greece. 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



CHAPTER I 



Time, as a separate entity, has not 
yet been defined in language. Defini- 
tions will be found to be merely ex- 
planations of the sense in which we use 
the word in matters of practical life. 
No human being can tell how long a 
minute is ; only that it is longer than a 
second and shorter than an hour. In 
some sense we can think of a longer or 
shorter period of time, but this is 
merely comparative. The dift'erence 
between 50 and 75 steps a minute in 
marching is clear to us, but note that 
we introduce motion and space before 
we can get a conception of time as a 
succession of events, but time, in itself, 
remains elusive. 

In time measures w^e strive for a uni- 
form motion of something and this 
implies equal spaces in equal times ; 
so we here assume just what we can- 
not explain, for space is as difficult to 
define as time. Time cannot be 
"squared" or used as a multiplier or 
divisor. Only numbers can be so used ; 
so when we speak of "the square of the 
time" we mean some number which we 
have arbitrarily assumed to represent 
it. This becomes plain when we state 
that in calculations relating to pendu- 
lums, for example, we may use seconds 
and inches — minutes and feet — or sec- 



onds and meters and the answer will 
come out right in the units which we 
have assumed. Still more, numbers 
themselves have no meaning till they 
are applied to something, and here we 
are applying them to time, space and 
motion ; so we are trying to explain 
three abstractions by a fourth ! But, 
happily, the results of these assump- 
tions and calculations are borne out in 
practical human life, and we are not 
compelled to settle the deep question 
as to whether fundamental knowledge 
is possible to the human mind. Those 
desiring a few headaches on these 
questions can easil)^ get them from 
Kant and Spencer — but that is all they 
will get on these four necessary as- 
sumptions. 

Evidently, man began by consider- 
ing the day as a unit and did not in- 
clude the night in his time keeping for 
a long period. "And the evening and 
the morning were the first day" Gen. 
1, 5; "Evening and morning and at 
noonday," Ps. LV, 17, divides the day 
("sun up") in two parts. "Fourth part 
of a day," Neh. IX, 3, shows another 
advance. Then comes, "are there not 
twelve hours in a day," John XI, 9. 
The "eleventh hour," Matt. XX, 1 to 
12, shows clearly that sunset was 13 



14 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



o'clock. A most remarkable feature of 
this 12-hour day, in the New Testa- 
ment, is that the writers generally 
speak of the third, sixth and ninth 
hours, Acts II, 15; III, 1; X, 9. This 
is extremely interesting, as it shows 
that the writers still thought in quarter 
days (Neh. IX, 3) and had not yet ac- 
quired the 12-hour conception given to 
them by the Romans. They thought 
in quarter days even when using the 
12-hour numerals! Note further that 
references are to "hours ;" so it is evi- 
dent that in New Testament times they 
did not need smaller subdivisions. 
"About the third hour," shows the 
mental attitude. That they had no 
conception of our minutes, seconds and 
fifth seconds becomes quite plain when 
we notice that they jumped down from 
the hour to nowhere, in such expres- 
sions as "in an instant — in the twink- 
ling of an eye." 

Before this, the night had been di- 
vided into three watches, Judges VII, 
19. Poetry to this day uses the "hours" 
and the "watches" as symbols. 

This 12 hours of daylight gave very 
variable hours in latitudes some dis- 
tance from the equator, being long in 
summer and short in winter. The 
amount of human ingenuity expended 
on time measures so as to divide the 
time from sunrise to sunset into 12 
equal parts is almost beyond belief. In 
Constantinople, to-day, this is used, 
but in a rather imperfect manner, for 
the clocks are modern and run 24 
hours uniformly ; so the best they can 
do is to set them to mark twelve at 
sunset. This necessitates setting to 
the varying length of the days, so that 
the clocks appear to be sometimes more 
and sometimes less than six hours 
ahead of ours. A clock on the tower 
at the Sultan's private mosque gives 
the impression of being out of order 
and about six hours ahead, but it is 
running correctly to their system. 
Hotels often show two clocks, one of 
them to our twelve o'clock noon sys- 
tem. Evidently the Jewish method of 
ending a day at sunset is the same and 
explains the command, "let not the sun 
go down upon thy wrath," which we 



might read, do not carry your angei 
over to another day. I venture to sa} 
that we still need that advice. 

This simple line of steps in dividing 
the day and night is taken principal!] 
from the Bible because everyone cai 
easily look up the passages quoted anc 
many more, while quotations fror 
books not in general use would not b 
so clear. Further, the neglect of th 
Bible is such a common complaint i: 
this country that if I induce a few t 
look into it a little some good may re 
suit, quite apart from the matter 
religious belief. 

Some Chinese and Japanese method 
of dividing the day and night are ind: 
cated in Fig. 1. The old Japanes 
method divides the day into six hour 
and the night also into six, each hou 
averaging twice as long as ours. I 
some cases they did this by changin 
the rate of the clock, and in others b 
letting the clock run uniformly an 
changing the hour marks on the dia 
but this will come later when we reac 
Japanese clocks. 

It is remarkable that at the preser 
time in England the "saving daylighl 
agitation is virtually an attempt to 
back to this discarded system. "Joh 
Bull," for a long period the time-keep 
of the world with headquarters i 
Greenwich, and during that time tl 
most pretentious clock-maker, now pr( 
poses to move his clocks backward ar 
forward several times a year so as 
"fool" his workmen out of their be^ 
in the mornings ! Why not commen 
work a few minutes earlier each for 
night while days are lengthening a 
tiie reverse when they are shortenins 

This reminds me of a habit whic 
was common in Scotland, — "keepin 
the clock half an hour forward." ] 
those days work commenced at s 
o'clock, so the husband left his houf 
at six and after a good walk arrived 
the factory at six ! Don't you see thi 
if his clock had been set right he woul 
have found it necessary to leave at ha 
past five? But, you say he was simpl 
deceiving himself and acting in an ui 
reasonable manner. Ceitainly, but th 
average man is not a reasonable beinj 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



15 



Vid "John Bull" knows this and is try- 
'}\g to fool the average Englishman. 

Now, as to the methods of measur- 
iig time, we must use circumstantial 
'vidence for the pre-historic period. 



tive methods like setting up a stick and 
marking its shadow so that a party 
trailing behind can estimate the dis- 
tance the leaders are ahead by the 
changed -position of the shadow. Men 



^•,/# 







Fig. 1 — Interpretation of Chinese and Japanese Methods of Time Keeping 



The rising and the going down of the 
sun — the lengthening shadows, etc., 
must come first, and we are on safe 
ground here, for savages stilHis e pri mi- 



notice their shortening and lengthening 
shadows to this day. When the shadow 
of a man shortens more and more 
slowly till it appears to be fixed, the 



16 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



observer knows it is noon, and when 
it shows the least observable lengthen- 
ing then it is just past noon. Now, it 
is a remarkable fact that this crude 
method of determining noon is just the 
same as "taking the sun" to determine 
noon at sea. Noon is the time at which 
the sun reaches his highest point on 
any given day. At sea this is deter- 
mined generally by a sextant, which 
simply measures the angle between the 
horizon and the sun. The instrument 
is applied a little before noon and the 
observer sees the sun creeping upward 
slower and slower till a little tremor 
or hesitation appears indicating that 
the sun has reached his height, — noon. 
Oh ! you wish to know if the observer 
is likely to make a mistake? Yes, and 
when accurate local time is important. 




Figf. 2 — Portable Bronze Sundial from the Ruins ol 
Herculaneum 

several officers on a large ship will take 
the meridian passage at the same time 
and average their readings, so as to 
reduce the "personal error." All of 
which is merely a greater degree of 
accuracy than that of the man who ob- 
serves his shadow. 

^/The gradual development of the 
primitive shadow methods culminated 
in the modern sundial. The "dial of 
Ahas," Isa. XXXVIII, 8, on which the 
sun went back 10 "degrees" is often re- 
ferred to, but in one of the revised 
editions of the unchangeable word the 
sun went back 10 "steps." This be- 
comes extremely interesting when we 
find that in India there still remains an 
immense dial built with steps instead 
of hour lines. Figure 2 shows a pocket, 
or portable sundial taken from the ruins 



of Herculaneum and now in the Muset 
National, Naples. It is bronze, was I 
silver plated and is in the form of a hamj 
suspended from the hock joint. From 
the tail, evidently bent from its original 
position, which forms the gnomon, lines 
radiate and across these wavy lines 
are traced. It is about 5 in. long and 
3 in. wide. Being in the corner of a 
glass case I was unable to get small 
details, but museum authorities state 
that names of months are engraved on 
it, so it would be a good guess that 
these wavy lines had something to do 
with the long and short days. 

In a restored flower garden, within 
one of the large houses in the ruins of 
Pompeii, may be seen a sundial of the 
Armillary type, presumably in its orig- 
inal position. I could not get close 
to it, as the restored garden is railed 
in, but it looks as if the plane of the 
equator and the position of the earth's 
axis must have been known to the 
maker. 

Both these dials were in use about 
the beginning of our era and were 
covered by the great eruption of Vesu- 
vius in 79 A.D., which destroyed Pom- 
peii and Herculaneum. 

Modern sundials differ only in being 
more accurately made and a few 
"curiosity" dials added. The necessity 
for time during the night, as man's life 
became a little more complicated, ne- 
cessitated the invention of time ma- 
chines. The "clepsydra," or water 
clock, was probably the first. A French 
writer has dug up some old records 
putting it back to Hoang-ti 2679 B.C., 
but it appears to have been certainly in 
use in China in 1100 B.C., so we will 
be satisfied with that date. In present- 
ing a subject to the young student it 
is sometimes advisable to use round 
numbers to give a simple comprehen- 
sion and then leave him to find the 
overlapping of dates and methods as 
he advances. Keeping this in mind, the 
following table may be used to give an 
elementary hint of the three great steps 
in time measuring: 

Shadow time, 2000 to 1000 B. C. 

Dials and Water Clocks, 1000 B. C 
to 1000 A. D. 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



17 



Clocks and watches, 1000 to 2000 
. D. 

1 have pushed the gear wheel clocks 
id watches forward to 3000 A.D., as 
ley may last to that time, but I have 
3 doubt we will supersede them. At 
le present time science is just about 
ady to say that a time measurer con- 
sting- of wheels and pinions— a driv- 
g power and a regulator in the form 
■ a pendulum or balance, is a clumsy 
)ntrivance and that we ought to do 
itter very soon ; but more on this 
:)ped-for, fourth method when we 
ach the consideration of the motion 
1 which we base all our time keeping. 
It is remarkable how few are aware 
lat the simplest form of sundial is the 
jst, and that, as a regulator of our 
•esent clocks, it is good within one or 
vo minutes. No one need be without 
"noon-mark" sundial ; that is, every 
le may have the best of all dials. Take 
post or any straight object standing 
)lumb," or best of all the corner of 
building as in Fig. 3. In the case of 
le post, or tree trunk, a stone (shown 
solid black) may be set in the 
■ound ; but for the building a line may 
ten be cut across a flagstone of the 
lOtpath. Many methods may be em- 
oyed to get this noon mark, which is 
mply a north and south line. View- 
g the pole star, using a compass (if 
le local variation is known) or the old 
ethod of finding the time at which 
le shadow of a pole is shortest. But 
le best practical way in this day is to 
56 a watch set to local time and make 
le mark at 12 o'clock. 
On four days of the year the sun is 
ght and your mark may be set at 12 
1 these days, but you may use an al- 
anac and look in the column marked 
nean time at noon" or "sun on meri- 
an." For example, suppose on the 
"ight day when you are ready to place 
Dur noon mark you read in this 
)lumn 11 :50, then when your watch 
lows 11 :50 make your noon mark to 
le shadow and it will be right for all 
me to come. Owing to the fact that 
lere are not an even number of days 

a year, it follows that on any given 
?arly date at noon the earth is not at 




Fig. 3 — Noon-Mark Sundials 





SUN ON 


NOON MARK, 


1909 


Date 




Clock 
Time 


Date 




Clock 
Time 


Date 




Clock 
Time 


Jan. 


2. 


..12:04 


May 


1. 


..ll::-.7 


Sept. 


30. 


..11:50 


" 


4. 


..12:05 




15. 


..11:50 


Oct. 


3. 


..11:49 


" 


7. 


..12:00 


" 


28. 


..11:57 


" 


6. 


..11:48 


" 


9. 


..12:07 


June 


4. 


..11:58 


" 


10. 


..11:47 


" 


11. 


..12:08 


" 


10. 


..ll:.-i9 


" 


14. 


..11:46 


" 


14. 


.12:00 


" 


14. 


..12:00 


" 


19. 


..11:45 


" 


17. 


.12:10 


" 


19. 


..12:01 




26. 


..11:44 


" 


20. 


..12:11 


" 


24. 


..12:02 


Nov. 


17. 


..11:45 


" 


23. 


..12:12 


" 


29. 


..12:03 


" 


22. 


..11:46 


" 


28. 


.12:13 


July 


4. 


..12:04 


" 


25! 


..11:47 


Feb. 


3. 


..12:14 




10. 


..12:05 


" 


29. 


..11:48 


" 


26. 


..12:13 


" 


10. 


..12:06 


Dec. 


1. 


..11:49 


Mar. 


3. 


..12:12 


^ug. 


11. 


..12:05 


" 


4. 


..11:50 


" 


8. 


.12:11 




16. 


..12:04 


" 


6. 


..11:51 


<< 


11. 


..12:10 


" 


21. 


..12:03 


" 


9. 


..11:52 


" 


15. 


..12:00 


" 


25. 


..12:02 


" 


11. 


..11:53 


" 


18. 


..12:08 


" 


28. 


..12:01 


" 


13. 


..11:54 


" 


22. 


..12:07 


" 


31. 


..12:00 


'* 


15. 


..11:55 


" 


25! 


..12:06 


Sept. 


4. 


..11:59 


" 


17. 


..11:56 


•' 


28. 


..12:05 




7. 


..11:58 


" 


19. 


..11:57 


.\pr. 


1. 


..12-04 


" 


10. 


..11:57 


" 


21. 


..11:58 




4. 


..12:03 


" 


12. 


..11:56 


" 


23. 


..11:59 


" 




..12:02 




15. 


..11:55 


" 


25. 


..12:00 


" 


11! 


..12:01 


" 


18. 


..11:54 


" 


27. 


..12:01 


" 


15. 


..12:00 


" 


21. 


..11:53 


" 


29. 


..12:02 


" 


19. 


..11 :.">.) 


" 


24. 


..11:52 


" 


31. 


.12:03 


" 


24. 


..11:.^.8 


" 


27. 


..11:51 









The above table shows the variation of the sun from "mean" 
or clock time, by even minutes. 

the same place in its elliptical orbit 
and the correction of this by the leap 
years causes the ecjuation table to vary 
in periods of four years. The centen- 
nial leap years cause another variation 
of 400 years, etc., but these variations 
are less than the error in reading a dial. 



18 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 




Fig 



4 — 12-Inch Modern Horizontal Sundial for 
Latitude 40°— 43' 



The reason that the table given here 
is convenient for setting- clocks to mean 
time is that a minute is as close as a 
dial can be read, but if you wish for 
greater accuracy, then the almanac, 
which gives the "equation of time" to 
a second for each day, will be better. 
The reason that these noon-mark dials 
are better than ordinary commercial 
dials is that they are larger, and still 
further, noon is the only time that any 
dial is accurate to sun time. This is be- 
cause the sun's rays are "refracted" in 
a variable manner by our atmosphere, 
but at noon this refraction takes place 
on a north and south line, and as that 
is our noon-mark line the dial reads 




correctly. So, for setting clocks, tl 
corner of your house is far ahead of tl 
most pretentious and expensive diall 
In Fig. 4 is shown a modern horizont 
dial without the usual confusing "orn; 
mentation," and in Fig. 5 it is shown S( 
up on the latitude of New York Cit 
for which it is calculated. This shew 
clearly why the edge EG of the sty 
which casts the shadow must be pal 
allel to the earth's axis and why a hori 
zontal dial must be made for the latj 
tude of the place where it is set ug 
Figure 6 is the same dial only the linej 
are laid out on a square dial plate, and 




Fig. 5 — The Earth, Showing Relation of Dial Styles 
to Axis 



Fig. 6 — Modern Sundial Set Up in Garden 

it will give your young scientific read- 
ers a hint of how to set up a dial in 
the garden. In setting up a horizontal 
dial, consider only noon and set the 
style, or 12 o'clock line, north and 
south as described above for noon-mark 
dials. 

A whole issue of I'opular Mechanics 
could be filled on the subject of dials 
and even then only give a general out- 
line. Astronomy, geography, geometry, 
mathematics, mechanics, as w^ell as 
architecture and art, come in to make 
"dialing" a most charming scientific 
and intellectual avocation. 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



19 



During the night and also in cloudy- 
feather the sundial was useless and 
'6 read that the priests of the temples 
nd monks of more modern times 
went out to observe the stars" to make 
guess at the time of night. The most 
rominent type after the shadow de- 
ices was the "water clock" or "clepsy- 
ra," but many other methods were 
sed, such as candles, oil lamps and in 
Dmparatively late times, the sand 
lass. The fundamental principle of all 
ater clocks is the escape of water from 
vessel through a small hole. It is 
i^ident that such a vessel would empty 
self each time it is filled in very nearly 
le same time. The reverse of this has 
een used as shown in Fig. 7, which 
;presents the "time-boy" of India. He 
ts in front of a large vessel of water 
nd floats a bronze cup having a small 
Die in its bottom in this large vessel, 
nd the leakage gradually lowers this 
jp till it sinks, after which he fishes 
up and strikes one or more blows on 
as a gong. This he continues and a 
ide division of time is obtained, — 
hile he keeps awake ! 
The most interesting of all water 
ocks is undoubtedly the "copper jars 
ropping water," in Canton, China, 
here I saw it in 1897. Referring to 
le simple line sketch, which I make 
om memory. Fig. 8, and reading four 
hinese characters downwards the 
anslation is "Canton City." To the 
ft and still downwards, — "Hon-woo- 
L-low," which is, — "Copper jars drop- 
ng water." Educated Chinamen in- 
irm me that it is over 3,000 years old 



and had a weather vane. As they speak 
of it as "the clock of the street arch" 
this would look quite probable ; since 
the little open building, or tower in 





Fig. 7 — "Time-Boy" of India 



Fig. 8 — "Hon-woo-et-low" or "Copper Jars Dropping 
Water" — Canton, China 



which it stands is higher than surround- 
ing buildings. It is, therefore, reason- 
ably safe to state that the Chinese had 
a zueathcr and time station over 1,000 
years before our era. It consists of four 
copper jars partially built in masonry 
forming a stair-like structure. Com- 
mencing at the top jar each one drops 
into the next downward till the water 
reaches the solid bottom jar. In this 
lowest one a float, "the bamboo stick," 
is placed and indicates the height of 
the water and thus in a rude way gives 
the time. It is said to be set morning 
and evening by dipping the water from 
jar 4 to jar 1, so it runs 12 hours of our 
time. What are the uses of jars 2 and 
3, since the water simply enters them 
and drips out again? No information 
could be obtained, but I venture an ex- 
planation and hope the reader can do 
better, as we are all of a family and 
there is no jealousy. When the top jar 
is filled for a 12-hour run it would drip 
out too fast during the first six hours 



20 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



and too slow during tl e second six 
hours, on account of the varying "head" 
of water. Now, the spigot of jar 2 
could be set so that it would gain water 
during the first six hours, and lose dur- 
ing the second six hours and thus equal- 
ize a little by splitting the error of jar 
1 in two parts. Similarly, these two 
errors of jar 2 could be again split by 
jar 3 making four small variations in 
lowest jar, instead of one large error 
in the flow of jar 1. This could be ex- 
tended to a greater number of jars, 
another jar making eight smaller errors, 
etc., etc. But I am inclined to credit 
our ancient Chinese inventor with the 
sound reasoning that a human attend- 
ant, being very fallible and limited in 
his capacity, would have all he could 
properly do to adjust four jars, and 
that his record would average better 
than it would with a greater number. 
Remember, this man lived thousands 
of years before the modern mathemati- 
cian who constructed a bell-shaped 
vessel with a small hole in the bottom, 
and proportioned the varying diameter 
in such a manner 
that in emptying 
itself the surface 
of the water sank 
equal distances in 
equal times. The 
sand glass, Fig. 9, 
])oetically called 
the "hour glass," 
belongs to the 
water-clock class 
a n d the sa n d 
flows from one 
bulb into the 
other, but it gives 
no subdivisions of 
its period, so if 
you are using one 
running an hour 
it does not give 
you the half hour. 
The sand glass is still in use by chair- 
men, and when the oldest inhabitant 
gets on his feet, I always advise setting 
a 20-minute glass "on him." 

In the "Tower of the Winds" at 
Athens, Greece (Fig. 10), we have a 
later "weather bureau" station. It is 




Fig. 9 — Modern Sand 
Glass or "Hour Glass" 




Fig. 10 — "Tower of the Winds" — Athens, Greece 

attributed to the astronomer Androni 
cos, and was built about 50 B. C. It i: 
octagonal in plan and although 27 f1 
in diameter and 44 ft. high, it looks lik^ 
a sentry box when seen from one o 
the hills of Athens. It had a bronz^ 
weather vane and in later times sun 
dials on its eight sides, but all thes 
are gone and the tower itself is only ; 
dilapidated ruin. In making the draw 
ing for this cut, from a photograph o 
the tower, I have sharpened th 
weathered and chipped corners of th 
stones so as to give a view nearly lik 
the structure as originally built ; bu 
nothing is added. Under the eaves i 
has eight allegorical sculptures, repre 
senting wind and weather. Artists stat^ 
that these sculptures are inferior a 
compared with Grecian art of an olde 
period. But the most interesting par 
is inside, and here we find curiou 
passages cut in solid stone, and socket 
which look as if they had containe( 
metal bearings for moving machinery 
Circumstantial evidence is strong tha 
it contained a complicated water clocl 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



21 



,which could have been kept running 
Iwith tolerable accuracy by setting it 
daily to the dials on the outside. Prob- 
ably during- a few days of cloudy 
weather the clock would "get off quite 
a little," but business was not pressing 
in those days. Besides, the timekeeper 
would swear by his little water wheel, 
anyway, and feel safe, as there was no 



higher authority wearing an American 
watch. 

Some very interesting engravings of 
Japanese clocks and a general explana- 
tion of them, as well as a presentation 
of the Japanese mental attitude to- 
wards "hours" and their strange 
method of numbering them may be ex- 
pected in the next chapter. 




CHAPTER II 
JAPANESE CLOCKS 

Chinese and Japanese divisions of the day. — Hours of vary- 
ing length.— Setting clocks to length of daylight.— Curved 
line dials. — Numbering hours bacWards and strange reasons 
for same. — Daily names for sixty day period. — Japanese 
clock movements practically Dutch. — Japanese astronomical 
clock. — Decimal numbers very old Chinese. — Original ver- 
tical dials founded on "bamboo stick" of Chinese clepsydra. 
— Mathematics and superstition. — Mysterious disappear- 
ance of hours 1 , 2, 3.— Eastern mental attitude towards 
time. — Japanese methods of striking hours and half hours. 



CHAPTER II 



The ancient methods of dividing day 
and night in China and Japan become 
more hazy as we go backwards and 
the complications grow. The three 
circles in Fig. 1 (Chapter 1) are all 
taken from Japanese clocks, but the in- 
terpretation has been obtained from 
Chinese and Japanese scholars. The 
Japanese obtained a great deal from 
the Chinese, in fact nearly everything 
relating to the ancient methods of time 
keeping and the compiling of calen- 
dars. I have not been able to find any 
Chinese clocks constructed of wheels 
and pinions, but have a number of Jap- 
anese. These have a distinct resem- 
blance to the earlier Dutch move- 
ments, and while made in Japan, they 
are practically Dutch, so far as the 
"works'" are concerned, but it is easy to 
see from the illustrations that they are 
very Japanese in style and ornamenta- 
tion. The Dutch were the leaders in 
opening Japan to the European nations 
and introduced modern mathematics 
and clocks from about 1590 A. D. The 
ancient mathematics of Japan came 
largely from China through Corea. In 
Fig. 11 are given the Japanese figures 
beside ours, for the reader's use as a 
key. The complete day in Japan was 



the clocks are set, as the days vary in 
length, so that six o'clock is sunrise 
and sunset. The hour numerals on Fig. 
12 are on little plates which are mov- 
able, and are shown set 
for a long day and a short 
night. 

In Fig. 13 they are set 
for short days and long 
nights. The narrow plates 
shown in solid black are 
the half-hour marks. In 
this type the hand is sta- 
tionary and always points 
straight upward. The 
dial rotates, as per arrow, 
once in a full day. This 
style of dial is shown on 
complete clocks. Fig. 14 
being a weight clock and 
Fig. 15 a spring clock with 
chain and fusee. The 
hours are 9 to 4 and the 
dials rotate to make them 
read backwards. The six 
hours of daylight are 6, 5, 
4, 9, 8, 7, 6 and the same 
for night, so these hours 
average twice as long as 
ours. Note that nine is ^'^- ^^ 

mid-dav and mid-night, and as these 



-^ 


1 


^ 


2 


= 


3 


\3 


4 


i 


5 




6 


-b 


7 


A 


8 


K 


9 


+ 


10 


± 


11 


± 


12 




Fig. 12 Fis 

Japanese Dials Set for Long and Short Days 



divided into twice six hours; that is, do not change by long and short days 
six for daylight and six for night, and they are stationary on the dial, as you 



26 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



can 
and 



easily see by comparing Figs. 13 
13, which are the same dial set for 




Fig. 14 — Japanese Striking Clock with Weight and 
Short Pendulum 



different seasons. Between these ex- 
tremes the dial hours are set as often as 
the owner wishes ; so if he happens to 
correspond with our ''time crank" he 
will set them often and dispute with his 
neighbors about the time. Figure IG 
shows a clock with the hour numerals 
on a vertical series of movable plates 
and it is set for uniform hours wdien 
day and night are equal at the equinox. 
The ornamental pointer is fastened to 
the weight through the vertical slit, 
plainly visible in illustration, and in- 
dicates the time as it descends. This 



clock is wound up at sunset, so the 
six on the top of the dial is sunset 
the same as the six on the bottom. 
Figure 17 shows how this type of dial 
is set for long and short days and ex- 
plains itself, but will become plainer 
as we proceed. This dial is virtually 
a continuation of the old method of 
marking time by the downward mo- 
tion of the water in the clepsydras and 
will be noticed later. 

Figure 18 represents a clock which 
is a work of art and shows great re- 
finement of design in providing for 
the varying lengths of days. The bar 
lying across the dial is fastened to the 
weight through the two slits running 
the whole length of the dial. On this 
cross bar is a small pointer, which is 
mo\'al)le by the fingers, and may be 
set to any one of the thirteen vertical 
lines. The numerous characters on 
the top space of dial indicate the dates 
on which the pointer is to be set. This 
clock is wound up at sunset, and it is 
easy to see that as the little pointer 
is set towards the right, the night 
hours at the top of the dial become 
shorter and the day hours longer on 
the lower part. The left edge of the 
dial gives the hours, reading down- 




Fig. 15 — Japanese Striking Clock with Spring, Fusee 
and Balance 



wards, and as the pointer touches any 
one of the curved lines the hour is 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



27 



iad at the left-hand end. The curved 
lies formed of dots are the half-hours. 
liie right-hand edge of the dial has 
lie "twelve horary characters" which 
11 be explained later. For dividing 
^e var3ang" days into six hours' sun- 
ine it would be difficult to think of 
rmore artistic and beautiful invention 
can this. It is a fine example of great 
jigenuity and constant trouble to op- 
ate a system which is fundamentally 
jrong according to our method of uni- 
;rm hours at all seasons. Clocks 
living these curved lines for the vary- 
ig lengths of days — and we shall find 
I em on circular dials as we go on — 
lUst be made for a certain latitude, 
nee the days vary more and more as 
)U go farther from the equator. This 
ill become plain when you are re- 
inded that a Japanese clock at the 
[uator would not need any adjust- 
ent of hour numerals, because the 
lys and nights are equal there all the 
iSLT. So after such infinite pains in 
irming these curved lines the clock 
only good in the latitude for which 
was made and must not be carried 
3rth or south ! Our clocks are correct 
om pole to pole, but all clocks must 
? set to local time if they are carried 
ist or west. As this is a rather 
scinating phase of the subject it 
ight be worth pointing out that if 
)u go north till you have the sun up 
r a month in the middle of summer — 
id there are people living as far up 
. that — the Japanese system would 
icome absurd and break down ; so 
ere is no danger of any of our polar 
:peditions carrying Japanese clocks. 
Figure 19 shows a very fine clock 
which the dial is stationary and the 
md moves just as on our dials. This 
)ur hand corresponds to the single 
md of the old Dutch clocks. When 
e Japanese reached the point of con- 
dering the application of minute and 
cond hands to their clocks they found 
at these refinements would not fit 
eir old method and they were com- 
;lled to lay aside their clocks and 
ke ours. On this dial, Fig. 19, nine 
noon, as usual, and is on top side of 
al. Hand points to three quarters 



past seven, that is, a quarter to six, 
near sunset. Between the bell and the 





Fig. 16 — Japanese 
Clock with Vertical 
Dial, Weight and Bal- 
ance. 



Fig. 18 — Japanese 
Clock with Vertical 
Dial Having Curved 
Lines, Weight and 
Balance. 



top of the clock body two horizontal 
balances, having small weights hung 
on them, are plainly shown, and the 
clock has two verge escapements — one 
connected with each balance, or "fo- 
liot." Let us suppose a long day com- 
ing to a close at sunset, just as the hand 
indicates. The upper balance, which is 
the slow one, has been swinging back- 
wards and forwards measuring the 
long hours of the day. When the 
clock strikes six, at sunset, the top 
balance is thrown out of action and 
the lower one, which is the fast one. 



28 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



is thrown into action and measures the 
short nis:ht hours. At sunrise this is 



swr* SET. 






^•^ 



6.< 


^2^" 


5-< 


^> 


4- < 


-C?^^ 


9 c 


^> 


8 C 


:^> 


7 ^ 


:^ 


6. C 


^^t: 




fj '" 


6-. < 


<K^ 


1-.C 


^o^^ 


s>.c 


-V tvj^-^ 


B.C 


"r 


7. C 


^ 


^•. C 


<l>- 



^ 






'H^*'lHre^.' 





5<^ 


<^ 


>5. 


<^ 


>^ 


X 


5 9. 


^^Ca) 


5 8. 


c(^ 


>7- 




>5: 


c^^^^ 


>4. 


ffi^Cf ^v^ 


>9. 


<V;: 


>8. 


cCV) 


:>7. 


~ ~^^'\^ 


>6. 



Fig. 17 — Japanese Vertical Dials 

thrown out and the top one in again 
to measure the next day's long hours. 
As the days vary in length, the bal- 
ances, or foliots, can be made to swing 
faster or slower by moving the weights 
inwards or outwards a notch or two. 
The balance with small weights for 
regulation is the oldest known and was 
used in connection with the verge es- 
capement, just as in this clock, by the 
Dutch about 1364. All the evidence 
I can find indicates that the Japanese 
clocks are later than this date. In de- 
sign, ornamentation and methods for 
marking varying days, however, the 
Japanese have shown great artistic 
taste and inventiveness. It is seen 
that this dial in addition to the usual 
six hours, twMce over, has on the out- 
side circle of dial, the "twelve horary 
branches" called by the Japanese the 
"twelve honorary branches," thus in- 
dicating the whole day of tw^elve Jap- 
anese hours, six of them for dav 



and six for night. By this meai 
they avoided repeating the same hou 
for day and night. When it 
pointed out that these "twelve horai 
branches" are very old Chinese, v 
are not in a position to boast aboi 
our twenty-four hour system, becaui 
these branches indicate positive' 
whether any given hour is day or nigh 
When we print a time table in tl 
twenty-four hour system so as to g' 
rid of our clumsy A. M. and P. M., v 
are thousands of years behind the Ch 
nese. More than that, for they g( 
the matter right without any sue 
pressure as our close running trail 
have brought to bear on us. The; 
branches have one syllable names ar 
the "ten celestial stems" have also oi 
syllable names, all as shown on Fi 
20. Refer now to Fig. 21 where t\^ 
disks are shown, one having tl 
"twelve horary branches" and tl 
other the "ten celestial stems." The; 
disks are usually put behind the di 
so that one "branch" and one "sten 
can be seen at the same time throug 
two openings. The clock moves the; 
disks one step each night, so that 
new pair shows each day. Runnir 
in this manner, step by step, you wi 
find that it takes sixty moves, that 
sixty days, to bring the same pa 
around again. Each has a sing 
syllable name, as shown on Fig. 2 
and we thus get sixty names of tv\ 
S3'llables by reading" them together i 
the left. The two openings may 1 
seen in the dials of Figs. 15 and 1 
So the Japanese know exactlv wli; 
day it is in a period of sixty whic 
they used in their old calendars. The; 
were used by the Chinese over foi 
thousand years ago as the names < 
a cycle of sixty years, called the "se: 
agenary." The present Chinese yet 
4 006 is YU-KI which means the ye; 
46 of the 76th "sexagenarv." That i 
76X60+46=4,606. ^In Fig. 20, ^^ 
read TSU-KIAH, or the first year, 
you will make two disks like Fie. S 
and commence with TSU-KIAH an 
move the tw^o together you will coir 
to YU-KI on the 46th move. Bt 
there is another way which you migl 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



29 



xe better, thus : Write the twelve 
tranches," or syllables, straight down- 
ards, continuously five times; close 
;■ the right, write the ten "stems" six 
mes. Now you have sixty words of 
vo syllables and the 46tli, counting 
Dwnwards, will be YU-KI. Besides, 
Siis method gives you the whole sixty 
iames of the "sexagenary" at one view. 
ilways read left, that is, pronounce 
:ie "stem" syllable first. 
' Calendars constitute a most inter- 
isting and bewildering part of time 
measuring. We feel that we have set- 
led the matter by determining the 
imgth of the year to within a second 
if time, and keeping the dates cor- 
3ctly to the nearest day by a leap year 
very fourth and every fourth century, 
stablished by Pope Gregory XIII in 
588, and known as the "Gregorian 
'alendar." In simple words, our "al- 
lanac" is the "Gregorian." We are 
1 the habit of saying glibly that any 
ear divisible by four is a leap year, 
ut this is far from correct. Any year 
eaving out the even hundreds, which 
3 divisible by four is a leap year. 
Iven hundreds are leap when divisible 
ly four.'''"This explains why 1900 was 
, common year, because, ig hundreds 
3 not divisible by fouf"; 2000 will be 
. leap begause .20 hundreds is divisible 
•y four;' therefore 2100, 2200 and 
300 will be common years and 2400 
. leap, etc., to 4000 which must be 
nade common, to keep things straight, 
n spite of the fact that it is divisible 
•y four^both in its hundreds and thou- 
ands. But for practical purposes, dur- 
ng more than two thousand years to 
ome, we may simplify the rule to: 
'^ears and even hundreds divisible by 
our are leaps. But great confusion 
till exists as a result of several coun- 
ries holding to their own old methods, 
rhe present Chinese year has 384 days, 
.3 months and 13 full moons. Com- 
)ared with our 1909 it begins on Jan- 
lary 21st and will end on February 8, 
.910. Last year the China-Japan cal- 
endar had 12 months, or moons, but 
LS that is too short they must put in 
in extra every thirtieth month. We 
)nly allow the error to reach one day 



and correct it with our leap years, but 
they are not so particular and let the 




Figr. 19— Japanese Striking Clock with Two Balances 
and Two Escapements; Dial Stationary, Hand Moves 



error grow till they require another 
"moon." The Old Testament is full 
of moons, and even with all our "mo- 
dernity" our "feasts" and holy days are 
often "variable" on account of being 
mixed up with moons. In Japan the 
present year is the 42nd of Meiji, that 
is, the 42nd of the present Emperor's 
reign. The present is the Jewish 
5669. These and others of varying 
lengths overlap our year in different 
degrees, so that in trade matters great 
confusion exists. The Chinese and 
Japanese publish a trade almanac in 
parallel columns with ours to avoid 
this. It is easy to say that we ought 
to have a uniform calendar all over the 
world, but the same remark applies just 



30 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



as much to money, weights, measures, 
and even to language itself. Finally, 
the difficulty consists in the facts that 



3- TSU. I Ipp KIAH I 



ft CHou 2 

g ym. 3 

^ &HEN § 

S SSU. 6 
^ wu. 7 
^'vVVEi. 8 

^ SHEW. 9 
g YU. 10 

^ HAl. 12 



S YIN. 2 
f^ PING. 3 
T TiNG. 4 
/^ WL/. 5 
B Kl. 6 

^ SIN. 8 
^ JEN. 9 
^y^ KWEI. 10 



Fig. 20— Key to "12 Horary 

Branches" and "10 Celestial 

Stems 

there are not an even number of days 
in a year — or in a moon — or moons in 
a year. "These many moons" is a 
survival in our daily speech of this 
old method of measuring by moons. 
Just a little hint as to the amount of 
superstition still connected with "new 
moon" will be enough to make clear 
the fact that we are not yet quite so 
"enlightened" as we say we are. While 
our calendar, or almanac, may be con- 
sidered as final, we must remember 
that custom and religion are so mixed 
up with the matter in the older coun- 
tries of the East that they will change 
very slowly. Strictly, our "era" is ar- 
bitrary and Christian ; so we must not 
expect nations which had some astro- 
nomical knowledge and a working cal- 
endar, thousands of years before us, 
to change suddenly to our "upstart" 
methods. 

In Fig. 23 we have the dial of a 
very complicated astronomical clock. 
This old engraved brass dial did not 
photograph well, so I made a copy by 
hand to get clean lines. Commencing 
at the centre, there is a small disk, FJ, 
numbered from 1 to 30, giving days of 
the moon's age. The moon rises at 
A and sets at AA, later each day, of 
course. Her age is shown by the num- 
ber she touches on disk B, as this disk 
advances on the moon one number 



each day. Her phases are shown 

the motion of a black disk over t 

face; so we have here three motio 

for the moon, so differentiated as 

show phase, ascension and age. Si 

further, as she is represented on t 

dial when below the horizon, it c 

be seen Avhen she will rise, and "moc 

light" parties may be planned, Ji 

outside the moon's course is an a 

nulus having Japanese numbers 1 

12, indicating months. 'Note the i 

curring character dividing the mont 

in halves, which means "middle," ai 

is much used. If you will careful 

read these numbers you will find 

character where one would come ; t\ 

means "beginning" or "primary" ai 

is often used instead of one. The clo 

hand is the heavy arrow and swee 

the dial once in a whole day, sar 

direction as our clocks. This circ 

of the months moves along with tl 

hand, but a little faster, so as to ga 

one number in a month. As shown ( 

the figure it is about one week into tl 

sixth month. Next outward is tl 

broad band having twelve curved lin 

for the hours ending outwardly in 

ring divided into 100 parts, mark( 

off in tens by dots. These curved lin^ 

are numbered with the Japanese m 

merals for hours which you must no 

be able to read easily. These hoi 

lines, and the dotted lines for ha 

hours, are really the same as the sirn 

lar lines on Fig. 18 which you no 

understand. As the hand sweeps tl 







^ 


o l^g^f o s 


\^ 


^/ \^ "%"/ 


\^ 


R^ MLJb^ 



Fig. 21— "12 Horary Branches" and "10 Celestial 
Stems" as Used in Clocks 

dial daily it automatically moves ou1 
ward a little each day, so it shorten 
the nights and lengthens the dayj 
just as previously explained for Fig 
18. But there is one difference, fo 
you will notice that the last nigh 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



31 




our, on which the arrow hand now 

lands, is longer than the other night 

ours before it, and that it is divided 
;ito three by the dotted lines. The last 
'^ay hour, on 

le left of dial, 

3 a 1 s o long 

n d divided 

n t o three 
["hat is, while 
[ll the dials 

reviously de- 
jicribed have 
tqual hours 
iOr any given 
jay, or night, 
fhis dial has a 
fist long hour 
n each case, 
divided into 
hree instead 
if the usual 
lalf -hours, 
fhis is a cu ri- 
als and inter- 
sting point 
laving its ori- 
;'in long before 
locks. In the early days of the clepsy- 
ra in China, a certain time was allowed 
o dip up the water from the lowest jar, 
ach morning and evening about five 
'clock of our time, see Fig. 8 (diap- 
er 1). During this operation the 
lepsydral was not marking time, and 
he oriental mind evidently considered 
t in some sense outside of the regular 
ours, and like many other things was 
etained till it appeared absurdly on 
be earlier clocks. This wonderful 
sat of putting an interval between 
wo consecutive hours has always been 
npossible to modern science ; yet 
'resident Roosevelt performed it 
asily in his "constructive" interreg- 
uni ! Referring to the Canton clep- 
ydra, Fig. 8, we find that the float, or 
bamboo stick," was divided into 100 
arts. At one season 60 parts for the 
ay and 40 parts for the night, grad- 
ally being changed to the opposite 
)r short days. The day hours were 
eaten on a drum and the night hours 
lown on a trumpet. 

Later the hour numerals were made 



Dial of Japanese Astronomical Clock 



movable on the "bamboo stick." This 
is virtually a vertical dial with mov- 
able hour plates, so their idea of time 
measuring at that date, was of some- 
thing moving 
up or down. 
This was put 
on the first 
clocks by the 
Japanese ; s o 
that the dial of 
Fig. 16 is sub- 
stantially the 
float of the 
Chinese clep- 
sydra. Furth- 
e r, in this 
"bamboo 
stick" of 100 
parts, we have 
our present 
system of dec- 
imal numbers, 
so we can af- 
ford to be a 
little modest 
here too. Be- 
fore leaving 
Fig. 22 note the band, or annulus, 
of stars which moves with the month 
circle. I cannot make these stars 
match our twelve signs of the Zo- 
diac, but as I have copied them care- 
fully the reader can try and make 
order out of them. The extreme outer 
edge of the dial is divided into 360 
parts, the tens being emphasized, as 
in our decimal scales. 

As we are getting a little tired of 
these complicated descriptions, let us 
branch off for a few remarks on some 
curiosities of Eastern time keeping. 
They evidently think of an hour as a 
period of time more specifically than 
we do. \^'hen we say "(i o'clock" we 
mean a point of time marked by the 
striking of the clock. We have no 
names for the hour periods. We must 
say "from 5 to 6" or "between 5 and 6" 
for an hour period. The "twelfth 
hour" of the New Testament, I under- 
stand to mean a whole hour ending at 
sunset ; so we are dealing with an 
oriental attitude of mind towards 
time. I think we get that conception 



32 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



nearly correct when we read of the 
"middle watch" and understand it to 
mean during the middle third of the 
night. Secondly, why do the Japanese 
use no 1, 2, 3 on their dials? These 
numbers were sacred in the temples 
and must not be profaned by use on 
clocks, and they mentally deducted 
these from the clock hours, but ulti- 
mately became accustomed to 9. 8, T, 

6, 5, 4. Thirdly, why this reading of 
the hours backwards? Let us suppose 
a toiler commencing at sunrise, or six. 
When he toiled one hour he felt that 
there was one less to come and he 
called it five. This looks quite logi- 
cal, for the diminishing numbers in- 
dicated to him how much of his day's 
toil was to come. Another explana- 
tion which is probably the foundation 
of "secondly" and "thirdly" above, is 
the fact that mathematics and super- 
stition were closely allied in the old 
days of Japan. If you take the num- 
bers 1 to 6, Fig. 23, and multiply them 
each into the uncanny "yeng number." 
or nine, vou will find that the last 
digits, reading downwards, give 9, 8, 

7, 6, 5, 4. Stated in other words: 
When 1 to (> are multiplied into "three 
times three" the last figures are 9, 8, 
7, 6, 5, 4, and i, 2, j, have disappeared; 
so the common ])eople were tilled with 
fear and awe. Some of the educated, 
even now, are mystified by the strange 
results produced by using three and 
nine as factors, and scientific journals 
often give space to the matter. We 
know^ that these results are produced 
by the simple fact that nine is one less 
than the "radix" of our decimal scale 
of numbers. Nine is sometimes called 
the "indestructible number," since 
adding the digits of any of its powers 
gives an even number of nines. But 
in those days it was a mystery and 
the common people feared the mathe- 
maticians, and I have no doubt the 
shrewd old fellows took full advantage 
of their power over the plebeians. In 
Japan, mathematics was not cleared of 
this rubbish till about 700 A. D. 

On the right-hand side of Fig. 23 
are given the animal names of the 
hours, so the dav and nieht hours 



could not be mistaken. In selectiti 
the rat for night and the Iwrse for d;i 
thev showed good taste. 1 heir fori 



1X9= 9 


tV f^AT ^icVt 


2X9 = 18 


A OK, 2An 


3X9 = 27 


-t TIGER tAKl 


4 X 9 = 36 


K H^REioAH 


5X9=45 


iCMBm 


G X 9 = 54 


CHSHaKElOW 


1X9=9 


tlHO(?SBNOON 


2X9= 18 


A SHLtP 2?K 


3X9 = 27 


t m^w^ 


4X9=36 


iy COCK^P./^. 


5X9=45 


fL Doa m 


(BX9-.S-4 


Cs6OAf\10P(v\ 



Fig. 23 — Use of "Yeng Number" 
and Animal Names of Hours 

noon was "before horse" and the 
afternoon "after horse." Japane 
clocks are remarkable for variety, 
looks as if they were always made 
order and that the makers, probab 
urged by their patrons, made extren 
efforts to get in wonderful motioi 
and symbols relating to astronomy ar 
astrology. Anyone examining abo 
fifty of them would be likely to co 
elude that it was almost hopeless 
understand them all. Remember, th 
is the old Japanese method. Near 
all the clocks and watches I saw 
Japan were American. It will now 1 
necessary to close this chapter with 
few points on the curious striking 
Japanese clocks. 

In those like Figs. 14, 15, 19, tl 
bell and hammer can be seen. In tl 
type of Fig. Ki, the whole strikir 
mechanism is in the weight. In fac 
the striking part of the clock is tl 
weight. On each of the plates, havii 
the hour numerals, Fig. 16, a pin pr 
jects inwards and as the weight co 
taining the striking mechanism, d 
scends, a little lever touches these at 
lets off the striking just when tl 
pointer is on the hour numeral. Kee 
ing this in mind, it is easy to see th 
the clock will strike correctly wh( 
the hour is indicated by the pointe 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



33 



') matter how the hour plates are set 
'r long- or short days. Similar pins 
oject inwards from movable plates 
1 Figs. 12, 13, 14, 15, so they strike 
irrectly as each hour plate comes to 
e top just under the point of the 
ced hand. In Fig. 19, the striking is 
t off by a star wheel just as in old 
utch clocks. Clocks like Figs. 18- 
; do not strike. In all cases the hours 
e struck backwards, but the half- 
)urs add another strange feature, 
he odd numbered hours, 9, 7, 5, are 
llowed b}^ one blow at the half hour; 
id the even hours, 8, 6, 4 by two blows, 
stated altogether — 

d, 8, ^ 7, e, 5, 4,. 
ere the large figures are the hours 
id the small ones the half-hours. 



Only one bell is used, because there 
being no one and two among the hours, 
the half-hours cannot be mistaken. 
This is not all, for you can tell what 
half hour it is within two hours. For 
example, suppose you know approxi- 
mately that it is somewhere between 
9 and 7 and you hear the clock strike 
2, then you know it is half past 8. See 
the large and small figures above. 
This is far superior to our method of 
one at each half-hour. 

By our method the clock strikes one 
three times consecutively, between 12 
and 2 o'clock and thus mixes up the 
half hours with one o'clock. Some in- 
teresting methods of striking will be 
explained in the third chapter when 
we deal with modern time keeping. 




CHAPTER III 

MODERN CLOCKS 

DeVick's clock of 1 364. — Original "verge" escapement. — 
"Anchor" and "dead beat" escapements. — "Remontoir" 
clock. — The pendulum. — Jeweling pallets. — Antique clock 
with earliest application of pendulum. — Turkish watches. — 
Correct designs for public clock faces. — Art work on old 
watches. — Twenty-four hour watch. — Syrian and Hebrew 
hour numerals. — Correct method of striking hours and 
quarters.— Design for twenty-four hour dial and hands.^ — 
Curious clocks. — Inventions of the old clockmakers. 



CHAPTER III 




Public Dial by James Arthur 



Fig. 24 



Dial of Philadelphia City Hall Clock 



Modern clocks commence with De 
V^ick's of 1364 which is the first un- 
questioned clock consisting of toothed 
A^heels and containing the funda- 
nental features of our present clocks. 
References are often quoted back to 
ibout 1000 A. D., but the words trans- 
ated "clocks" were used for bells and 
lials at that date ; so we are forced to 
consider the De Vick clock as the first 
ill more evidence is obtained. It has 
)een pointed out, however, that this 
:lock could hardly have been invented 
ill at once ; and therefore it is probable 
hat many inventions leading up to it 
lave been lost to history. The part of 
L clock which does the ticking is called 
he "escapement" and the oldest form 
mown is the "verge," Fig. 25, the date 
)f which is unknown, but safely 300 
rears before De Vick. The "foliot" 
s on the vertical verge, or spindle, 
vhich has the pallets A B. As the 
oliot swings horizontally, from rest to 
■est, we hear one tick, but it requires 
wo of these single swings, or two 
icks, to liberate one tooth of the es- 
ape wheel ; so there are twice as many 



ticks in one turn of the escape wheel as 
it has teeth. We thus see that an es- 
capement is a device in which some- 
thing moves back and forth and allows 
the teeth of an "escape wheel" to es- 
cape. While this escapement is, in 
some respects, the simplest one, it has 
always been difficult to make it plain 
in a drawing, so I have made an efifort 
to explain it by making the side of the 
wheel and its pallet B, which is nearest 
the eye, solid black, and farther side 
and its pallet A, shaded as in the 
figure. The wheel moves in the direc- 
tion of the arrow, and tooth D is very 
near escaping from pallet B. The tooth 




Fig. 25 — Verge Escapement 

C on the farther side of wheel is mov- 
ing left, so it will fall on pallet A, to be 



38 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



in its turn liberated as the pallets and 
foliot svvino- back and forth. It is easy 



■CORO. 




WEIGHT. 



Fig. 26— De Vick's Clock of 1364 

to see that each tooth of the wheel will 
give a little push to the pallet as it es- 
capes, and thus keep the balance 
swinging. This escapement is a very 
poor time-keeper, but it was one of the 
great inventions and held the field for 
about 600 years, that is, from the days 
when it regulated bells up to the 
"onion" watches of our grandfathers. 
Scattered references in old writings 
make it reasonably certain that from 
about 1,000 to 1,300 bells were struck 



by machines regulated with this verge 
escapement, thus showing that tin 
striking part of a clock is older thar 
the clock itself. It seems strange to u; 
to say that many of the earlier clocks 
were strikers, only, and had no dials oi 
hands, just as if you turned the face o: 
your clock to the wall and depended or 
the striking for the time. Keeping this 
action of the verge escapement in minq 
we can easily understand its applica- 
tion, as made by De Vick, in Fig. 26 
where I have marked the same pallet.' 
A B. A tooth is just escaping from pal- 
let r> and then one on the other side o: 
the wheel will fall on pallet A. Foliot 
verge and pallets form one solid piec( 
which is suspended by a cord, so as tc 
enable it to swing with little friction 
For the purpose of making the motion; 
very plain I have left out the dial anc 
framework from the drawing. Th( 
wheel marked "twelve hours," and th( 
pinion which drives it, are both outsid( 
the frame, just under the dial, and art 
drawn in dash and dot. The axle o 
this twelve-hour wheel goes througl 
the dial and carries the hand, whicl" 
marks hours only. The winding pinior 
and wheel, in dotted lines, are in 
side the frame. Now follow th( 
"great wheel" — "intermediate" — "es 




Fig. 27 — Anchor Escapement 

cape wheel" and the two pinions, all ir 
solid lines, and you have the "train' 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



39 



.vliich is the principal part of all clocks. 

This clock has an esca])ement, wheels, 

)inions, dial, hand, weight, and wind- 
.AVf^ square. We have only added the 
;i'pendulum, a better escapement, the 

minute and second hands in over 500 
lyears ! The "anchor" escapement, Fig. 
i37, came about 1680 and is attributed 
tto Dr. Hooke, an Englishman. It gets 
its name from the resemblance of the 
ipallets to the flukes of an anchor. This 
^anchor is connected to the pendulum 
•and as it swings right and left, the 
'itecth of the escape wheel are liberated, 
one tooth for each two swings from 
rest to rest, the little push on the pal- 
lets A B, as the teeth escape, keeping 
the pendulum going. It is astonishing 
how many, even among the educated, 
think that the pendulum drives the 
clock! The pendulum must always be 
driven by some power. 

This escapement will be found in 
nearly all the grandfather clocks in 
connection with a seconds pendulum. 
It is a good time-keeper, runs well, 
wears well, stands some rc^ugh hand- 
ling and will keep going even when 
pretty well covered with dust and cob- 
webs ; so it is used more than all the 
numerous types ever invented. Figure 



ing a strip of steel ; but it is not the 
best form, as the acting surfaces of the 





Fig. 28 — American Anchor Escapement 

28 gives the general American form of 
the "anchor" which is made by bend- 



Fig. 29 — Dead Beat Escapement 

pallets are straight. It is, therefore, 
inferior to Fig. 27 where the acting 
surfaces are curved, since these curves 
give an easier "recoil." This recoil is 
the slight motion backzvards which the 
escape wheel makes at each tick. The 
"dead beat" escapement is shown in 
Fig. 29, and is used in clocks of a high 
grade, generally with a seconds pendu- 
lum. It has no recoil as you can easily 
see that the surfaces O O on which the 
teeth fall, are portions of a circle 
around the center P. The beveled ends 
of these pallets are called the impulse 
surfaces, and a tooth is just giving the 
little push on the right-hand pallet. It 
is found in good railroad clocks, watch- 
makers' regulators and in many astro- 
nomical clocks. These terms are 
merely comparative, a "regulator" be- 
ing a good clock and an "astronom- 
ical," an extra good one. Figure 30 
gives the movement of a "remontoir" 
clock in which the dead beat shown is 
used. The upper one of the three dia!-. 
indicates seconds, and the lever which 
crosses its center carries the large 
wheel on the left. 

This wheel makes the left end of the 
lever heavier than the right, and in 
sinkino- it drives the clock for one min- 



40 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



ute, but at the sixtieth second it "re- 
mounts" by the action of the clock 
weight ; hence the 
n a m e, "remon- 
toir." Note here 
that the big 
weight does not 
directly drive the 
clock ; it only re- 
winds it every 
minute. The min- 
utes are shown on 
the dial to the 
right and its hand 
j u m p s forward 
one minute at 
each sixtieth sec- 
ond as the lever 
remounts; so if 
you wish to set 
your watch to this 
clock the proper 
way is to set it to 
the even minute 
"on the jump." 
The hour hand is 
on the dial to the 
left. By this re- 
mounting, or re- 
winding, the clock 
receives the same 
amount of driving- 
force each min- 
ute. The complete 
clock is shown in 
Fig. 31, the large 
w e i g h t which 
does the rewinding each minute being 
plainly visible. The pendulum is com- 
pensated with steel and aluminum, so 
that the rate of the clock may not be 
influenced by hot and cold weather. 
Was built in 1901 and is the only one 
I can find room for here. It is fully 
described in "Machinery," New York, 
for Nov., 1901. I have built a consider- 
able number, all for experimental pur- 
poses, several of them much more 
complicated than this one, but all dif- 
fering from clocks for commercial pur- 
poses. Pallets like O O in Fig. 29 are 
often made of jewels; in one clock I 
used agates and in another, running 
thirteen months with one winding, I 
used pallets jeweled with diamonds. 



Fig, 31 Remontoir Clock 
by James Arthur 



This is done to avoid friction and wea 
Those interested in the improveme 
of clocks are constantly striving afl^ 
light action and small driving weight' 
Conversel}^ the inferior clock has 
heavy weight and ticks loud. Th 
"gravity escapement" and others giv 
ing a "free" pendulum action would ri 
quire too much space here, so we mui 
be satisfied with the few successfi 
ones shown out of hundreds of inver 
tions, dozens of them patented. Th 
pendulum stands at the top as a tim 
measurer and was known to the ai 
cients for measuring short periods f 
time just as musicians now use tli 
metronome to get regular beats. Ga 
ileo is credited with noticing its regulj 
beats, but did not apply it to clock 
although his son made a partially su( 
cessful attempt. The first mathemat 
cal investigation of the pendulum we 
made by Fluyghens about 1670, and li 
is generally credited with applying 
to clocks, so there is a "Huyghens 
clock with a pendulum instead of tb 
foliot of De Vick's. Mathematical!; 
the ItMiger and heavier the pendului 




Fig. 30 — Remontoir Clock Movement 

the better is the time-keeping, bi 
nature does not permit us to carry an} 
thing- to the extreme ; so the difficult 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



41 



,of finding- a tower high enough and 
iSteady enough, the cumbersomeness of 
weight, the elasticity of the rod, and 
many other difficulties render very 
.long and heavy pendulums impractic- 
able beyond about 13 ft. which beats 
once in two seconds. "Big Ben" of 
Westminster, London, has one of this 
length weighing 700 lb. and measuring, 
over all, 15 ft. 

It runs with an error under one 
second a week. This is surpassed only 
by some of the astronomical clocks 
which run sometimes two months 
within a second. This wonderful time- 
keeping is done with seconds pendu- 
lums of about 39 in., so the theoretical 
advantage of long pendulums is lost 
in the difficulties of constructing them. 
Fractions are left out of these lengths 
as they would only confuse the ex- 
planations. At the Naval observatory 
in AVashington, D. C, the standard 
clocks have seconds pendulums, the 
rods of which are nickel steel, called 
"Invar," which is little influenced by 
changes of temperature. These clocks 
are kept in a special basement, so they 
stand on the solid earth. The clock 
room is kept at a nearly uniform tem- 
perature and each clock is in a glass 
C3dinder exhausted to about half an at- 
mosphere. They are electric remon- 
toirs, so no winding is necessary and 
thev can be kept sealed up tight in 
their glass cylinders. Nor is any ad- 
justment of their pendulums neces- 
sary, or setting of the hands, as the cor- 
rection of their small variations is 
efifected by slight changes in the air 
pressure within the glass cylinders. 
When a clock runs fast they let a little 
air into its cylinder to raise the resist- 
ance to the pendulum and slow it 
down, and the reverse for slow. Don't 
forget that we are now considering 
variations of less than a second a week. 

The clock room has double doors, so 
the outer one can be shut before the 
inner one is opened, to avoid air cur- 
rents. Visitors are not permitted to 
see these clocks because the less the 
doors are opened the better ; but the 
Commander will sometimes issue a 
special permit and detail a responsible 



assistant to show them, so if you wish 
to see them, you must prove to him 
that you have a head above your shoul- 




Fig. 32 — Antique Clock, Entirely Hand-Made 

ders and are worthy of such a great 
favor. 

The best thing the young student 
could do at this point would be to 
grasp the remarkable fact that the 
clock is not an old machine, since it 
covers only the comparatively short 
period from 1364 to the present day. 
Compared with the period of man's 
history and inventions it is of yester- 
dav. Strictly speaking, as we use the 
word clock, its age from De Vick to 
the modern astronomical is only about 



42 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



540 years. If we take the year 1660, 
we find that it represents the center of 




Fig. 33 — Antique Clock, Entirely Hand-Made 

modern improvements in clocks, a few 
years before and after that date in- 
cludes the pendulum, the anchor and 
dead beat escapements, the minute and 
second hands, the circular balance and 
the hair spring, along with minor im- 
provements. Since the end of that 
period, which we may make 1700, no 
fundamental invention has been added 
to clocks and watches. This 1)ecomes 
impressive when we remember that 
the last 200 years have produced more 
inventions than all previous known 
history — but only minor improvements 



in clocks ! The application of electric- 
ity for winding', driving", or regulatinc 
clocks is not fundamental, for the time- 
keeping is done by the master clod 
with its pendulum and wheels, just aE 
bv any grandfather's clock 200 years 
(lid. This broad survey of time meas- 
uring does not permit us to go into 
minute mechanical details. Those 
wishing to follow up the subject would 
require a large "horological library" — 
and Dr. Eliot's five-foot shelf would be 
altogether too short to hold the books. 
A good idea of the old church clocks 
may be obtained from Fig. 32 which is 
one of my valued antiques. Tradition 
has followed it down as the "English 
Blacksmith's Clock." Ic has the very 
earliest application of the pendulum. 
The pendulum, which I have marked 
b}' a star to enable the reader to find it, 
is less than 3 in. long and is hung on 
the verge, or pallet axle, and beats 222 
per minute. This clock may be safely 
])ut at 230 years old, and contains noth- 
ing invented since that date. \\'heels 
are cast brass and all teeth laboriously 
filed out by hand. Pinions are solid 
with the axles, or "stafifs," and also filed 




Fig. 36— Double-Case Watch of Repousse Work 

out by hand. It is put together, gener- 
ally by mortise, tenon and cotter, but 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



43 




Fig. 34— Triple-Case Turkish Watches 



has four original screws all made by 
:nd with the file. How did he thread 
e holes for these screws? Probably 
ade a tap by hand as he made the 
rews. fJut the most remarkable 
ature is the fact that no lathe was 
ed in forming- any part — all staffs, 
nions and pivots being filed by hand, 
lis is simply extraordinary when it is 
tinted out that a little dead center 
the is the simplest machine in the 
Drld, and he could have made one in 
5s than a day and saved himself 
;eks of hard labor. It is probable 
at he had g^reat skill in hand work 
d that learning to use a lathe would 
ve been a great and tedious effort for 
m. So we have a complete striking 
3ck made by a man so poor that he 
d only his anvil, hammer and file. 
le weights are hung- on cords as thick 
an ordinary- lead pencil and pass 
er pulleys having spikes set around 
em to prevent the cords from slip- 
n^. The weig-hts descend 7 ft. in 12 
airs, so they must be pulled up — not 
:)und up — twice a cfay. The single 
lur hand is a work of art and is cut 
rough like lace. Public clocks may 



still be seen in Europe with only one 
hand. Many have been puzzled by 
finding- that old, rudely made clocks 
often have fine dials, but this is not re- 
markable when we state that art and 
engraving- had reached a high level be- 
fore the days of clocks. It is worthy of 




Fig. 38 — Watch Showing Dutch Art Work 

note that clocks in the early days were 
generally built in the form of a church 



44 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



tower vvitli the bell under the dome 
and Figs. 38, 33 show a good example. 
It is highly ])rol)able that the maker of 



given it up at this point, so the secon« 
and fifths seconds came easily. 

The first watches, about 1500, hi 




Fig. 35— Triple-Case Turkish Watch 



this clock had access to some old 
church clock — a wonderful machine in 
those days — and that he laboriously 
copied it. It strikes the hours, only, by 
the old "count wheel" or "locking- 
plate" method. Between this and our 
modern clocks appeared a type show- 
ing quarter hours on a small dial under 
the hour dial. No doubt this was at 
that time a great advance and looked 
like cutting time up pretty fine. As the 
hand on the quarter dial made the cir- 
cuit in an hour the next step was easy. 
by simply dividing the circle of quar- 
ters into sixty minutes. The old fel- 
lows who thought in hours must have 



the foliot and verge escapement, and i 
some early attempts to govern tli 
foliot a hog's bristle was used as 
spring. E}^ putting a ring around tli 
ends of the foliot and adding the ha: 
spring of Dr. Hooke, about 1640, w 
have the verge watches of our granc 
fathers. This balance wheel and ha: 
spring stand today, but the "lever" ei 
capement has taken the place of th 
verge. It is a modification of the dea 
beat. Fig. 39, by adding a lever to th 
anchor, and this lever is acted on b 
the balance, hence the name "leve 
watch." All this you can see by oper 
ing your watch, so no detailed exph 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



45 



:ion is necessary. Figure 34 shows Cromwell wore an immense triple-case 
triple-cased Turkish watches with A.atch of this kind, and the poor plebe- 
-oe escapements, the one to the left ians who were permitted to examine 




37 — Watches Showing Art Work 



ing shown partly opened in Fig. 35. 
le watch with its inner case, includ- 
y the glass, is shown to the right, 
lis inner case is complete with two 
iges and has a winding hole in the 
ck. The upper case, of "chased" 
)rk. goes on next, and then the third, 

outer case, covered with tortoise 
ell fastened with silver rivets, g;oes 

outside the other two. When all 
ree cases are opened and laid on the 
ble, they look like a heap of oyster 
ells, but they go easily together, 
rming the grand and dignified watch 
own to the left in Fig. 34. Oliver 



such a magnificent instrument were 
favored ! 

Our boys' watches costing one dollar 
keep much better time than this type 
of watch. Comparing the Syrian dial, 
Fig. 42, wnth that on Fig. 35, it is evi- 
dent that the strange hour numerals 
on both are a variation of the same 
characters. These, so-called, "Turk- 
ish watches" were made in Europe for 
the Eastern trade. First-class samples 
of this triple-case type are getting 
scarce, but I have found four, two of 
them in Constantinople. Figure 36 
shows the double-case style, called 



46 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



"pair cases," the outer case thin silver, 
the figures and ornaments l:)eing- ham- 
mered and punched up from the inside 








Fig. 39 — Antique Watch Cock 

and called "repousse." Before we 
leave the old watches, the cjuestion of 
art work deserves notice, for it looks as 
if ornamentation and time-keeping- 
varied inversely in those days — the 
more art the worse the watch. I pre- 
sume, as they could not make a good 
time-keeper at that date, the watch- 
maker decided to give the buyer some- 
thing- of great size and style for his 
money. In Fig-. 37 foiir old movements 
are shown, and there is no doubt about 
the art, since the work is purely indi- 
vidual and no dies or templates used. 
In examining" a large number of these 
watches. I have never found the art 
work on an}- two of them alike. Note 
the grotesque faces in these, and in 
Fig. 39 which is a fine example of 
pierced, engraved work. Figure 38 is 
a fine example of pierced work with 
animals and flowers carved in relief. 
Figure 40 is a "Chinese" watch but 
made in Europe for the Chinese mar- 
ket. In Fig. 41 we have what remains 
of a quarter repeater with musical at- 
tachment. Each of the 24 straight 
gongs, commencing with the longest 
one, goes a little nearer the center of 



the large wdieel, so a circle of pins 
set in the wheel for each gong, or nol 
and there is plenty of room for sever; 
tunes ^\ hich the wearer can set ofif 
pleasure. Figure 43 is a modern wati 
with Hebrew hour numerals. Figu 
14 is a modern 24-hour watch used c 
some railroads and steamship lines, 
have a pretty clean-cut recollection ( 
Due event in connection with the 2- 
Imur system, as I left Messina betwee 
18 and ID o'clock on the night of tl 
earthquake! Dials and hands const 
tute an important branch of the snl 
ject. The general fault of hands is th: 
they are too much alike; in many ii 
stances they are the same, exceptir 
that the minute hand is a little longi 
than the hour. The dial shown on tl 
left of Fig. 24 was designed by me f( 
a public clock and can be read twice ; 
far away as the usual dial. Just wl 
\^'e should make the worst dials ar 
hands for public clocks in the Unit( 
States is more than I can find out, f( 
there is no possible excuse, since tl 
"spade and pointer" hands have bee 
known for generations. Figure 45 
offered as a properly designed dial fi 
watches and domestic clocks, havir 
flat-faced Gothic figures of modera 
height, leaving a clear center in tl 
dial, and the heav}^ "spade" hour har 




"Chinese" Watch 



reaching only to the inner edges of tl 
figures. For public clocks the Arab 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



47 



iimerals are the worst, for at a dis- 
Hince they look Hke twelve thumb 
larks on th.e dial ; while the flat-faced 
toman remain distinct as twelve clear 
iarks. 

! Do you know that you do not read a 
tiiblic clock by the figures, but by the 
.osition of the hands? This was dis- 
i)vered long ago. Lord Grimthorp 
id Due with twelve solid marks on the 
al and also speaks of one at the 
thena?um Club, both before lS(i!). 
ihe Philadelphia City Hall clock has 
ials of this kind as shown on right 
ide of Fig. 24. It has also good hands 
id can be read at a great distance, 
er}' few persons, even in Philadel- 
aia, know that it has no hour nunier- 
s on its dials. Still further, there is 
3 clock in the tower, the great hands 
sing" moved every minute by air pres- 
ire which is regulated by a master 
ock set in a clock room down below 
here the walls are 10 ft. thick. Call 
:id see this clock and you will find that 
le City Hall officials sustain the good 
ame of Philadelphia for politeness, 
-enerally, we give no attention to the 
our numerals, even of our watches, as 
le following" proves. When you have 
iken out your watch and looked at the 
me, for yourself, and put it back in 
our ]:)Mcket, and when a friend asks 



yourself, you did not read hours and 
minutes, but only got a mental impres- 





g. 41 — Musical Watch, Repeating Hours and 
Quarters 

le time you take it out again to find 
le time for him ! Why? Because, for 



Fig. 42 — Syrian Dial 

sion from the position of the hands ; so 
we only read hours and minutes when 
we are called on to proclaim the time. 
We must find a little space for strik- 
ing- clocks. The simplest is one blow 
at each hour just to draw attention to 
the clock. Striking the hours and also 
one blow at each half hour as well as 
the quarter double blow, called "ting 
tong" quarters, are too well known to 
need description. The next stage after 
this is "chiming quarters" with three 
or more musical gongs, or bells. One 
of the best strikers I have has three 
trains, three weights and four bells. It 
strikes the hour on a large bell and two 
minutes after the hour it strikes it 
again, so as to give you another chance 
to count correctly. At the first quarter 
it repeats the last hour followed by a 
musical chord of three bells, which we 
will call one triple blozv: at the second 
quarter the hour again and two triple 
iilows and at the third quarter, the 
hour again and three triple blows. 
Suppose a sample hour's striking 
from four o'clock, this is what you 
hear, and there can be no mistake. 
"Four" and in two minutes "four" — 
"four and one quarter" — -"four and two 
quarters" — -"four and three quarters," 
and the same for all other hours. This 
is definite, for the clock proclaims the 



48 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



hour, or the hour and so much past. It 
can be set silent, but that only stops it 
from striking- automatically, and 



blow on a small bell ; at the half hour 
it strikes the last hour over again or 
the small bell ; at the third quarter il 




Fig. 43 — Hebrew Numerals 

whether so set or not, it will repeat by 
pulling' a cord. You awake in the 
night and pull the cord, and then in 
mellow musical tones, almost as if the 
clock were speaking, you hear — "four 
and two quarters." This I consider a 
perfect striking clock. It is a large 
movement of fine w^orkmanship and 
was made in the department of the 
Jura, Erance. When a clock or watch 
only repeats, I consider the old "five- 
minute repeater" the best. I used this, 
method in a clock which, on pulling the 
cord, strikes the hour on a large bell 
and if that is all it strikes, then it is 
less than five minutes past. If more 
than five minutes past it follows the 
hour by one blow on a small bell for 
every five minutes. This gives the 
time within five minutes. It is fully 
described and illustrated in "Machin- 
ery," New York, for March, 1905. Just 
one more. An old Dutch clock which 
I restored strikes the hour on a large 
bell ; at the first quarter it strikes one 



Fig. 44— 24-Hour Watch 

strikes one IjIow on the large Ijell. But 
this in spite of its great ingenuity, only 
gives definite information at the houi 
and half hour. 

Of curious clocks there is no end, sc 
I shall just refer to one invented b}; 
\Mlliam Congreve, an Englishman, 
over one hundred years ago, and ofter 
coming up since as something new. A 
plate about 8 in. long and 4 in. wide 
has a long zigzag groove crosswise, 
This plate is pivoted at its center sc 
either end can be tipped up a little. A 
ball smaller than a boy's marble will 
roll back and forth across this plate 
till it reaches the lower end, at whicli 
point it strikes a click and the main- 
spring of the clock tips the plate the 
other way and the ball comes slowl}; 
back again till it strikes the disk at the 
other end of the plate, etc. Every time 
the plate tips, the hands are moved a 
little just like the remontoir clock al- 
ready described. Clocks of this kind 
are often used for deceptive purposes 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



49 



nd those ignorant of mechanics are 
eceived into the belief that they see 
erpettial motion. The extent to which 
lodern machine builders are indebted 
D the inventions of the ancient clock- 
laker, I think, has never been appreci- 
ted. 

In its earlier stages the clock was al- 
lost the only machine containing 
Dothed gearing, and the "clock tooth" 
; still necessary in our delicate ma- 
hines. It is entirely different from our 
tandard gear tooth as used in heavy 
lachines. The clock-makers led for a 
)ng time in working steel for tools, 
prings and wearing surfaces. They 
Iso made investigations in friction, 
earings, oils, etc., etc. Any one re- 
toring old clocks for amusement and 
leasure will be astonished at the high- 
lass mechanics displayed in them— 
early always by unknown inventors, 
lere is an example: The old clock- 
laker found that when he wished to 
rill a hole in a piece of thick wire so 
s to make a short tube of it, he could 
nly get the hole central and straight 
y rotating the piece and holding the 
rill stationary. By this method the 
rill tends to follow the center line of 



rotation ; and our great guns as well as 
our small rifles are bored just that way 
to get bores which will shoot straight. 




Fig. 45 — Domestic Dial by James Arthur 

The fourth and last chapter will deal 
with the astronomical motions on 
which our time-keeping is founded, our 
present hour zones of time, and close 
with suggestions for a universal time 
svstem over the whole world. 




CHAPTER IV 
ASTRONOMICAL FOUNDATION OF TIME 

Astronomical motions on which our time is founded. — 
Reasons for selectmg the sidereal day as a basis for our 
24-hour day. — Year of the seasons shorter than the zodiacal 
year. — Precession of the equinoxes." — Earth's rotation most 
uniform motion known to us. — Time Stars and Transits. — 
Local time.— The date line. — Standard time. — Beginning 
and ending of a day— Proposed universal time. — Clock dial 
for universal time and its application to business. — Next 
great improvement in clocks and watches indicated. — Auto- 
matic recording of the earth's rotation. — Year of the seasons 
as a unit for astronomers.^ — General conclusions. 



\ 



CHAPTER IV 



The mystery of time encloses all 
lings in its folds, and our grasp of its 
ifinite bearings is measured by our 
mitations. As there are no isolated 
cts in the Universe, we can never get 
) the end of our subject; so we know 
ily what we have capacity to absorb. 
1 considering the foundation on which 
1 our time measuring is based, we 
■e led into the fringe of that Elysian 
ild of science — astronomy. A sci- 
ice more poetical than poetry — more 
larming than the optimistic phanta- 
es of youth. That science which 
aves our imagination helpless ; for its 
cts are more wonderful than our ex- 
emest mental flights. The science of 
istness and interminable distances 
hich our puny figures fail to express, 
rhe stars sang together for joy," 
ight almost be placed in the category 
: facts ; while the music of the spheres 
.ay now be considered a mathematical 
lality. Our time keeping is inevitably 
jsociated with these motions, and we 
lUst select one which has periods not 
)0 long. That is, no continuous mo- 
on could be used, unless it passed 
)me species of milestones which we 
)uld observe. Consequently, our 
ocks do not — in the strict sense — 
leasure time ; but are adjusted to 
'■vide periods which they do not deter- 
line. We are constantly correcting 
leir errors and never entirely suc- 
ked in getting them to run accu- 
itely to periods of time which exist 
itirely outside of such little things 
5 men and clocks. So a clock is 
stter as it approximates or bears a 
;gular relation to some motion in 
iture. The sidereal clock of the as- 
onomer does run to a regular motion ; 
nt our 24-hour clocks do not, as we 
lall see later. Now consider the year, 
r the sun's apparent motion in the 
odiac, from any given star around to 
le same one again. This is altogether 
)o long to be divided by clocks, as we 
innot make a clock which could be 



depended on for anywhere near a year. 
The next shorter period is that of a 
"moon." This is also a little too long, 
is not easily observed, and requires all 
sorts of corrections. Observations of 
the moon at sea are so difficult and sub- 
ject to error that mariners use them 
only as a last resort. If a little freedom 
of language is permissible, I would say 
that the moon has a bad character all 
around, largely on account of her long 
association with superstition, false the- 
ology and heathen feasts. She has not 
purged herself even to this day! The 
ancients were probably right when they 
called erratic and ill-balanced persons 
"luny." Now we come to the day and 
find that it is about the right practical 
length — but what kind of a day? As 
there are five kinds we ought to be able 
to select one good enough. They are : — 

1st. The solar day, or noon to noon 
by the sun. 

2nd. An imaginary sun moving uni- 
formly in the ecliptic. 

3rd. A second imaginary sun mov- 
ing uniformly parallel to the equator 
at all seasons of the year. 

4th. One absolute rotation of the 
earth. 

5th. One rotation of the earth meas- 
ured from the node, or point, of the 
spring equinox. 

The difference between 1st and 2nd 
is that part of the sun's error due to the 
elliptical orbit of the earth. 

The other part of the sun's error — 
and the larger — between 2nd and 3rd 
is that due to the obliquity of the eclip- 
tic to the equator. 

The whole error between 1st and 
3rd is the "equation of time" as shown 
for even minutes in the first chapter 
under the heading, "Sun on Noon Mark 
1909." 

Stated simply, for our present pur- 
pose, 1st is sundial time, and 3rd our 
24-hour clock time. 

This 3nd day is therefore a refine- 
ment of the astronomers to separate 



54 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



the two principal causes of the sun's 
error, and I think we ought to handle 
it cautiously, or my friend, Professor 
Todd, might rap us over the knuckles 
for being presumptuous. 

This 5th day is the sidereal day of 
the astronomers and is the basis of our 
time, so it is entitled to a little atten- 
tion. I shall confine "sidereal day" to 
this 5th to avoid confusion with 4th. 
If you will extend the plane of the 
equator into the star sphere, you have 
the celestial equator. When the center 
of the sun passes through this plane on 
his journey north, in the Spring, we 
say, "the sun has crossed the line." 
This is a distant point in the Zodiac 
which can be determined for any given 
year by reference to the fixed stars. 
To avoid technicalities as much as 
possible we will call it the point of the 
Spring equinox. This is really the 
point which determines the common 
year, or year of the seasons. Using 
popular language, the seasons are 
marked by four points, — Spring equi- 
nox — longest day: Autumnal equinox 
— shortest day. This would be very 
simple if the equinoctial points would 
stay in the same places in the star 
sphere ; but we find that they creep 
westward each year to the extent of 50 
seconds of arc in the great celestial 
circle of the Zodiac. This is called the 
precession of the equinoxes. The year 
is measured from Spring equinox to 
Spring equinox again ; but each year it 
comes 50 seconds of arc less than a full 
revolution of the earth around the sun. 
Therefore if wc measured our year by a 
full revolution we would displace the 
months with reference to the seasons 
till the hot weather would come in 
January and the cold weather in Jwly 
in about 13,000 years; or a complete 
revolution of the seasons back to where 
we are, in 2G,000 years. Leaving out 
fractions to make the illustration plain, 
we have: — 

il) . %0 degrees of Zodiac ^ ,^ ^^ ^^^^^^ 

.SO seconds of arc 
(2) 1 day of time 



35^ seconds 

(3) 1 y ear of time 

20% minutes 

(4) 3% seconds 
days in a year 



= 26.000 years 
= 26.000 years 
— T- of a second 



, All 

* Aiiproximate 



In (1) we see that a "precession" ^ 
50 seconds of arc will bring the Sprir 
equinox around in 26,000 years. 

In (2) we see, as 50 seconds of a 
represents the distance the earth w 
rotate in 3 1/3 seconds, a difference 
one day will result in 26,000 yeai 
That is since the clock regulated by tl 
stars, or absolute rotations of the eart 
would get behind 3 1/3 seconds p 
year, it would be behind a day 
26,000 years, as compared with a ; 
dereal clock regulated by the Sprii 
equinoctial point. 

In (3) we see that as 50 seconds 
arc is traversed by the earth, in i 
annual revolution, in 20 1/3 minut( 
a complete circle of the Zodiac will 
made in 26,000 years. 

In (4) we see that as the differen 
between the year of the seasons and t 
Zodiacal year is 3 1/3 seconds of t' 
earth's rotation, it follows that if t\ 
is divided by the number of days in 
year we have the amount which 
sidereal day is less than 4th, or an abs 
lute rotation of the earth. That is, ai 
meridian passes the Spring equinocti 
point 1/110 of a second sooner than t 
time of one absolute rotation. The 
four equations are all founded on t 
precession of the equinoxes, and a 
simply different methods of stating 
Absolutely and finally, our time is re" 
lated by the earth's rotation : b 
strange as it may appear, we do n 
take one rotation as a unit. As shov 
above, we take a rotation to a moval 
point which creeps the 1/110 of a secoi 
daily. r)Ut after all, it is the unifoi 
rotation which governs. This is t 
one "dependable" motion which has n 
been found variable, and is the mc 
easily observed. When we rememb 
that the earth is not far from being 
heavy as a ball of iron, and that : 
surface velocity at the equator is aho 
17 miles per minute, it is easy to foru 
conception of its uniform motic 
Against this, however, we may pla 
the friction of the tides, forcing up 
mountain ranges, as well as mining a: 
building skyscrapers — all tending 
slow it. Mathematicians moving in t 
ethereal regions of astronomy lead 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



55 



conclude that it must become gradu- 
illy slower, and that it is slowing; but 
he amount may be considered a van- 
shing quantity even compared with the 
miallest errors of our finest clocks ; so 
or uncounted generations past — and to 
;ome — we may consider the earth's 
•otation uniform. Having now found 

1 uniform motion easily observed and 
)f convenient period, why not adopt it 
IS our time unit? The answer has 
)een partially given above in the fact 
;hat we are compelled to use a year, 
neasured from the Spring equinoctial 
)oint, so as to keep our seasons in 
)rder ; and therefore as we must have 
;ome point where the sidereal clocks 
md the meantime clocks coincide, we 
ake the same point, and that point is 
he Spring equinox. Now we have 
hree days : — 

1st. A sidereal day 1/110 of a sec- 
)nd less than one rotation of the earth. 

2nd. One rotation of the earth in 23 
lours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds, nearly, 
)f clock time. 

ord. One mean time clock day of 24 
lours, which has been explained pre- 
dously. 

Now, isn't it remarkable that our 24- 
lour day is purely artificial, and that 
lothing in nature corresponds to it? 
)ur real day of 24 hours is a theoretical 
lay. Still more remarkable, this theo- 
etical day is the unit by which we ex- 
»ress motions in the solar system. A 
Linar month is days — hours — minutes 
—and seconds of this theoretical day, 
nd so for planetary motions. And still 
nore remarkable, the earth's rotation 
i^hich is itself the foundation is ex- 
iressed in this imaginary time ! This 
3oks like involution involved, yet our 
4-hour day is as real as reality ; and the 
nan has not yet spoken who can tell 
;Ahether a mathematical conception, 
ustained in practical life, is less real 
han a physical fact. Our legal day of 
iractical life is therefore deduced from 
he day of a fraction less than one earth 
otation. In practice, however, the 
mall ditiference between this and a 
otation is often ignored, because as 
he tenth of a second is about as near 
s observations can be made it is evi- 



dent that for single observations 1/110 
of a second does not count, but for a 
whole year it does, and amounts to 3 1/3 
seconds. Now as to the setting of our 
clocks. W hile the time measured by 
the point of the Spring equinox is 
what we must find it is found loy noting 
the transits of fixed stars, because the 
relation of star time to equinoctial time 
is known and tabulated. Remember we 
cannot take a transit of the equinoctial 
point, because there is nothing to see, 
and that nothing is moving! But it can 
be observed yearly and astronomers 
can tell where it is, at any time of the 
year, by calculation. The stars which 
are preferred for observation are called 
"time stars" and are selected as near the 
celestial equator as possible. The 
earth's axis has a little wabbling mo- 
tion called "nutation" which influences 
the apparent motion of the stars near 
the pole ; but this motion almost dis- 
appears as they come near the equator, 
because nutation gives the plane of the 
equator only a little "swashplate" mo- 
tion. The positions of a number of 
"time stars" with reference to the equi- 
noctial point, are known, and these are 
observed and the observations aver- 
aged. The distance of any time star 
from the equinoctial point, in time, is 
called its "right ascension." Astrono- 
mers claim an accuracy to the twentieth 
part of a second when such transits are 
carefully taken, but over a long period, 
greater exactness is obtained. Really, 
the time at which any given star passes 
the meridian is taken, in practical life, 
from astronomical tables in the Nauti- 
cal Almanacs. Those tables are the 
result of the labors of generations of 
mathematicians, are constantly sub- 
ject to correction, and cannot be made 
simple. Remember, the Earth's rota- 
tion is the only uniform motion, all the 
others being subject to variations and 
even compound variations. This very 
subject is the best example of the broad 
fact that science is a constant series of 
approximations ; therefore, nothing is 
exact, and nothing is permanent but 
change. But you say that mathematics 
is an exact science. Yes. but it is a 
logical abstraction, and is therefore only 



56 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



the universal solvent in physical sci- 
ence. 

With our imaginary— but real — time 
unit of 24 hours we are now ready to 
consider "local time." Keeping the 
above explanation in mind, we may use 
the usual language and speak of the 
earth rotating in 34 hours clock time ; 
and since motion is relative, it is per- 
missible to speak of the motion of the 
sun. In the matter of the sun's appar- 
ent motion we are compelled to speak 
of his "rising," "setting," etc., because 
language to express the motion in 
terms of the earth's rotation has not 
been invented yet. For these reasons 
we will assume that in Fig. 47 the sun 
is moving as per large arrow and also 
that the annulus, half black and half 
white, giving the 24 hours, is fastened 
to the sun by a rigid bar, as shown, and 
moves around the earth along with him. 
In such illustrations the sun must al- 
ways be made small in proportion, but 
this rather tends to plainness. For 
simplicity, we assume that the illus- 
tration represents an equinox when the 
sun is on the celestial equator. Im- 
agine your eye in the center of the 
sun's face at A, and you would be look- 
ing on the meridian of Greenwich at 
12 noon ; then in one hour you would 
be looking on 15° west at 12 noon ; but 
this would bring 13 o'clock to Green- 
wich. Continue till you look down on 
New York at 12 noon, then it is 17 
o'clock at Greenwich (leaving out 
fractions for simplicity) etc. If you 
will make a simple drawing like Fig. 
47 and cut the earth separate, just 
around the inside of the annulus, and 
stick a pin at the North Pole for a 
center, you may rotate the earth as per 
small arrow and get the actual motion, 
but the result will be just the same as 
if you went by the big arrow. We thus 
see that every instant of the 24 hours 
is represented, at some point, on the 
earth. That is, the earth has an in- 
finity of local times ; so it has every 
conceivable instant of the 24 hours at 
some place on the circle. Suppose we 
set up 1,440 clocks at uniform distances 
on the equator, then they would be 
about 17 miles apart and dififer by min- 



utes. Now make it 86,400 clocks, they 
would be 1,500 feet apart and differ by 
seconds. With 864,000- clocks the)/ 
would be 150 feet apart and vary by 
tenths of seconds. It is useless to ex- 
tend this, since you could always im- 
agine more clocks in the circle ; thus es^ 
tablishing the fact that there are ar 
infinity of times at an infinity of place; 
always on the earth. It is necessary tc 
ask a little patience here as I shall us( 
this local time and its failure later ir 
our talk. Strictly, local time has nevei 
been used, because it has been founc 
impracticable in the affairs of life 
This will be plain when we draw atten 
tion to the uniform time of London 
which is Greenwich time ; yet thi 
British Museum is 30 seconds slow o 
Greenwich, and other places in Londoi 
even more. This is railroad time fo 
Great Britain ; but it is 20 minutes tO( 
fast for the west of England. This le( 
to no end of confusion and clocks wer 
often seen with two minute hands, on 
to local and the other to railroad time 
This mixed up method was followed b; 
"standard time," with which we are al 
pretty well acquainted. Simply, stand 
ard time consists in a uniform time fo 
each 15° of longitude, but this is theo 
retical to the extreme, and is not evei 
approached in practice. The first zon 
commences at Greenwich and as that i 
near the eastern edge of the Britisl 
Islands, their single zone time is fas 
at nearly all places, especially the wes 
coast of Ireland. When we follo^ 
these zones over to the United State 
we find an attempt to make the middl 
of each zone correct to local time, s 
at the hour jumping points, we pas 
from half an hour slow to half an hou 
fast, or the reverse. We thus see tha 
towns about the middle of these fou 
United States zones have sunrise an 
sunset and their local day correct, bu 
those at the eastern and western edge 
average half an hour wrong. As a cor 
sequence of this disturbance of th 
working hours depending on the ligh 
of the day, many places keep two set 
of clocks and great confusion result; 
Even this is comprehensible ; but it i 
a mere fraction of the trouble and corr 



f 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



57 



plication, because the hour zones are 
not separated by meridians in practice, 
but by zig-zag lines of great irregular- 
ity. Look at a time map of the United 
States and you will see the zones 
divided by lines of the wildest irregu- 
larity. Now question one of the bright- 
est "scientific chaps" you can 
find in one of the great rail- 
road offices whose lines touch, 
or enter, Canada and Mexico. 
Please do not tell me what he 
said to you ! So great is the 
confusion that no man under- 
stands it all. The amount of 
wealth destroyed in printing 
time tables, and failing to ex- 
plain them, is immense. The 
amount of human life de- 
stroyed by premature death, 
as a result of wear and tear 
of brain cells is too sad to con- 
template. And all by attempt- 
ing the impossible ; for local 
time, even if it zvas reduced to 
hourly periods is not compat- 
ible with any continental sys- 
tem of time and matters can 
only get worse while the at- 
tempt continues. For the 
present, banish this zone sys- 
tem from your mind and let 
us consider the beginning and 
ending of a day, using strictly 
local time. 

A civil, or legal, day ends 
at the instant of 24 o'clock, 
midnight, and the next day 
commences. The time is con- 
tinuous, the last instant of a 
day touching the first instant of the 
next. This is true for all parts of the 
earth ; but something in addition to this 
happens at a certain meridian called the 
'date line." Refer again to Fig. 47 which 
is drawn with 24 meridians representing 
hours. As we are taking Greenwich 
for our time, the meridians are num- 
bered from 0°, on which the observa- 
tory of Greenwich stands. When you 
visit Greenwich you can have the pleas- 
ure of putting your foot on "the first 
meridian," as it is cut plainly across the 
pavement. Degrees of longitude are 
numbered east and west, meeting just 



opposite at 180°, which is the "date 
line." Our day begins at this line, so 
far as dates are concerned ; but the local 
day begins everywhere at midnight. 
Let us start to go around the world 
from the date line, westward. When 
we arrive at 90° we are one quarter 




apparen r 

MOTION 

OF TME SUN. 




^'DNI GV^"^ 



Fig. 



47 — Local Time — Standard Time — Beginning and 
Ending of the Day 



around and it takes the sun 6 hours 
longer to reach us. At 0° (Greenwich) 
we are half around and 12 hours ahead 
of the sun motion. At 90° west, three 
quarters, or 18 hours, and when back to 
180° we have added to the length of all 
days of our journey enough to make 
one day ; therefore our date must be 
one day behind. Try this example to 
change the wording: — Let us start 
from an island B, just west of the date 
line. These islanders have their 24- 
hour days, commencing at midnight, 
like all other places. As we move west- 
ward our day commences later and 



58 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



later than theirs, as shown above. Sup- 
pose we arrive at the eastern edge of 
the 180° line on Saturday at 12 o'clock, 
but before we cross it we call over to 
the islanders, — what day is it? We 
would get answer, "Sunday ;" because 
all our days have been longer, totplling 
one day in the circuit of the globe. So 
if we step over the line at 12 o clock 
Saturday, presto, it is 12 o'clock Sun- 
day. It looks like throwing out 24 
hours, but this is not so, since we have 
lived exactly the same number of hours 
and seconds as the islanders. In this 
supposition we have all the dates, how- 
ever, but have jumped half of Saturday 
and half of Sunday, which equals one 
day. In practice this would not have 
been the method, for if the ship was to 
call at the island, the captain would 
have changed date on Friday night and 
thrown Saturday out, all in one piece, 
and would have arrived on their Sun- 
day ; so his log for that week would 
have contained only 6 days. It is not 
necessary to go over the same ground 
for a circuit of the globe eastward, but 
if you do so you will find that you 
shorten your days and on arri\'ing at 
the date line would have a day too 
much ; so in this case you would double 
a date and have 8 days in that week. 
In both cases this is caused by com- 
pounding your motion with that of the 
sun ; going with him westward and 
lengthening your days, or eastward 
meeting him and shortening them. 
Figure 47 shows Greenwich noon, we 
will say on Monday, and at that in- 
stant, Monday only, exists from to 24 
o'clock on the earth ; but the next in- 
stant, Tuesday begins at 180° B. In 
one hour it is noon of Monday at 15° 
West, and midnight at 165° East; so 
Tuesday is one hour old and there is 
left 23 hours of Monday. Monday 
steadily declines to as Tuesday 
steadily grows to 24 hours ; so that, 
except at the instant of Greenwich 
noon, there are always two days on the 
world at once. If we said that there 
are ahvays two days on the world at 
once, we could not be contradicted ; 
since there is no conceivable time be- 
tween Monday and Tuesday; it is an 



instantaneous change. As we cannol 
conceive of no time, the statement thai 
there is only one day on the earth at 
Greenwich noon is not strictly per- 
missible. Since there are always twc 
dr^ys on the world at once let us sup- 
pose that these two are December 31st 
and January 1st; then we have tzuc 
years on the world at once for a period 
of 24 hours. Nine years ago we had 
the 19th and 20th centuries on the 
world at once, etc. As a mental exer- 
cise, you may carry this as far as you 
please. Suppose there was an impas^ 
able sea w^all built on the 180° meri- 
dian, then there would be two days or 
the world, just as explained above 
but, practically, there would be no date 
line, since in sailing west to this wal 
we would "lengthen our days," anc 
then shorten them the same amouni 
coming around east to the other side o; 
the wall, but would never jump oi 
double a date. This explanation is 
founded, as it ought to be, on uniforn 
local time, and is the simplest I car 
give. The date line is fundamentall) 
simple, but is difficult to explain. Wher 
it is complicated by the standard time 
— or jumping hour system — and alsc 
with the fact that some islands coun' 
their dates from the wrong side of th( 
line for their longitudes, scientific para 
doxes arise, such as having three date; 
on the world at once, etc. ; but as thes< 
things are of no more value than wast 
ing time solving Chinese puzzles, the) 
are left out. Ships change date on the 
nearest night to the date line ; but i 
they are to call at some island port ir 
the Pacific, they may change eithei 
sooner or later to correspond with it; 
date. Here is a little Irish date line wi' 
printed for the first time, — I was tell 
ing my bright friend about turning ir 
on Saturday night and getting up foi 
breakfast on Monday morning. "Oh,' 
said he, "I have known gentlemen to dc 
as good as that without leaving Ne-w 
York City !" 

As what is to follow relates to the 
growing difficulties of local time and t 
proposed method of overcoming them 
let us recapitulate : — 

1st. Local time has never been kept 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



59 



and the difficulties of using- it have in- 
creased as man advanced, reaching a 
climax of absurdity on the advent of 
the railroad ; so it l3roke down and be- 
came impractical. 

3nd. To make the irregular disorder 
of local time an orderly confusion, the 
"standard time" — jumping by hours- — ■ 
has helped a little, but only because we 
can tell how much it is wrong at any 
given place. This is its only advantage 
over the first method, where we had no 
means of knowing what to expect on 
entering any new territory. That is, 
we have improved things by throwing 
out local time to the extent of an hour. 
My proposal is to throw local time 
out totally and establish one, invari- 
able, universal time. Greenwich time 
being most in use now, and meridians 
numbered from it, may be taken in pref- 
erence to any other. Still another rea- 
son is that the most important time- 
keepers in modern life — ship's chrono- 
meters — are set to Greenwich time. 
Universal time — no local time — only 
local day and night. Our 24-hour sys- 
tem is all right, so do not disturb it, as 
it gets rid of A.M. and P.M. and makes 
the day our unit of time. Our railroad 
time now throws out local time to the 
extent of one hour ; but I propose to 
throw it out entirely and never change 
the clock hands from Greenwich time. 
The chronometers do that now, so let 
us conduct all business to that time. 

Now refer to Fig. 46, in which 
Greenwich is taken as universal time. 
The annulus, half white and half black, 
indicates the average day and night, 
and is a separate ring in the dial which 
can be set so that "noon" is on the 
meridian of the place, as shown for four 
places in the illustration. It is the 
same dial in all four cases set to local 
day and night. Strictly, the local time 
conception is dropped and the local day 
left for regulating working and sleep- 
ing time. All business would have the 
same time. In traveling east we would 
not have the short hours ; or west, the 
long hours. All clocks and watches 
would show the same time as ship's 
chronometers do now. The only 
change would be the names of the hours 



for the parts of the local day. This is 
just the difficulty, for we are so accus- 
tomed to associate a certain number, as 
seven, with the morning and breakfast 
time. Suppose breakfast time in Lon- 
don is 7 o'clock, then according to the 
local day it would be 12 o'clock break- 
fast time in New York; but in both 
cases it would be the same time with 
reference to the local daylight. Let it be 
distinctly understood that our associa- 
tion of 12 o'clock with noon is not nec- 
essary. The Japanese called it "horse" 
and "nine" — the ancient Romans, the 
New Testament writers, and the Turks 
called it the "sixth hour" — the astrono- 
mers now call it 24 o'clock, and the 
Chinese represent it by several char- 
acters ; but, in all cases, it is simply the 
middle of the day at any place. By the 
proposed universal time, morning, 
noon, and evening would be — at any 
given place — the same hours. There 
would be no necessity of establishing 
legal noon with exactness to the meri- 
dian, because that would only regulate 
labor, meals, etc., and would not touch 
universal time. This is an important 
part of the proposal and is worth elabor- 
ating a little. Sections in manufactur- 
ing districts could make their working 
hours correspond at pleasure and no 
confusion would result. That is, local 
working hours to convenience but by 
the same universal time. Note how 
perfectly this would work in traveling, 
— you arrive in Chicago from the effete 
east and your watch corresponds all 
along with the railroad clocks. As you 
leave the station you glance up at the 
clock and see that Chicago noon is 
17.30, so you set the day and night ring 
of your watch to match the same ring 
on the clock, but no disturbance of the 
hands. As you register at the hotel 
you ask, — dinner? and get answer, 
24.30— then breakfast, 12.30. These 
questions are necessary now, so I do 
not add complication here. When you 
arrive in a strange city you must ask 
about meals, business hours, theater 
hours, "doors open" hours, etc., etc. ; 
so all this remains the same. Let us 
put the matter forcibly, — while we 
count days, or dates, something must 



60 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



vary with east and west ; I propose the 
fixing of hours for business and sleep to 
suit each locality, but an invariable 
time. Get rid of the idea that a certain 
number, as 7 o'clock, represents the age 
of the day at all places. See how this 
would wipe out the silly proposal to 
"save daylight" by setting the clock 
back and forward. Suppose workmen 
commenced at 12.30 in New York; for 
the long summer days make it 11.30, 
but no change in universal time. As 
this is the only difference from our pre- 
sent time system, keep the central con- 
ception, firmly, — universal time — local 
day and night. 

Suppose Chicago decided that "early 
to bed and early to rise" was desirable ; 
then it could establish its legal noon 
as 17.30, which would be about 20 min- 
utes early for its meridian. You could 
do business with Chicago for a lifetime 
and not find this out, unless you looked 
up the meridian of Chicago and found 
that it was 17.50 o'clock. None of the 
railroads or steamship lines of the city 
would need to know this, except as a 
matter of scientific curiosity, for the 
time tables would all be printed in uni- 
versal time. For hiring labor, receiving 
and delivering goods, etc., they would 
only need to know Chicago business 
hours. To state the matter in different 
words, — Chicago would only need to 
decide what portion of the universal 24 
hours would suit it best for its day and 
which for its night, and if it decided, as 
supposed above, to place its working 
day forward a little to give some day- 
light after labor, nothing would be dis- 
turbed and only the scientific would 
ever know. Certainly, "save daylight," 
but do not make a fool of the clock! 
Having shown the great liberty which 
localities could take without touching 
the working of the system, the same 
remarks apply to ultra-scientific locali- 
ties. A city might establish its noon 
to the instant ; so it is possible — even 
if a little improbable — that the brilliant 
and scientific aldermen of New York 
might appoint a commission with 
proper campfollowers and instrument 
bearers to determine the longitude of 
the city to the Nth of a second and tell 



us where we "are at." The glory of 
this achievement — and especially its 
total cost — would be all our own and 
incorruptible time would be untouched ! 
We thus see that great local freedom 
and great accuracy are alike possible. 
With our present system, accuracy in 
local time is impracticable and has 
never even been attempted, and is con- 
fusion confused since we added the rail- 
road hour jumps. Why did we nurse 
this confusion till it has become almost 
intolerable? Because man has always 
been a slave to mental associations, and 
habits. Primitive man divided the local 
day into parts and gave them names 
and this mental attitude sticks to us 
after it has served its day. The ad- 
vantages of universal time could hardly 
be enumerated, yet we can have them 
all by dropping our childish associa- 
tion of 7 o'clock with breakfast time! 
Another example, — you visit a friend 
for a few days and on retiring the first 
night you ask "what is your breakfast 
hour" — "8 o'clock." You have to ask 
this question and recollect the answer. 
Now tell me what difference it would 
make if the answer had been 13 o'clock? 
None whatever, unless, perhaps, that 
is, you do not like thirteen ! You ask, 
how about ships? Ships now carry 
universal time and only change the 
clock on deck to please the simple 
minded passengers. How about the 
date line? No change whatever, so 
long as we use dates which means num- 
bering local days. It is useless multi- 
plying examples; all difficulties disap- 
pear, as if by magic, the moment we 
can free our minds of local time and the 
association of the same hour with the 
same portion of the day at all places. 
The great interest at present mani- 
fested in the attempts to reach the 
North Pole calls for some consideration 
of universal time in the extreme north. 
Commencing at the equator, it is easy 
to see that the day and night ring, Fig. 
4fi, would represent the days and nights 
of 12 hours at all seasons. As we go 
north, however, this ring represents the 
average day and night. When we reach 
the Polar Circle, still going north, the 
daily rising and setting of the sun grad- 



p 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



61 



ually ceases till we reach the great one- 
year day at the Pole, consisting of six 
months darkness and six months light. 
Let us now assume that an astronom- 
ical observatory is established here 
and the g"reat equatorial placed pre- 
cisely on the pole. At this point, local 
time, day and night, and the date line, al- 
most cease to have a meaning. For 
this very reason universal time would 
be the only practical method ; there- 



hours within five seconds ! At the pole 
the day would commence at the same 
instant as at some assumed place, and 
the day and night ring would represent 
working and sleeping as at that place. 
Suppose this observatory to be in tele- 
graphic communication with New 
York, then it would be best for the at- 
tendants to set their day and night to 
New York, so as to correspond with its 
business hours. Many curious supposi- 







Fig. 46— Universal Time Dial Set for Four Places 



fore, it more than stands the test of be- 
ing carried to the extreme. Universal 
time would regulate working and sleep- 
ing here the same as at all other places. 
Strictly local time in this observatory 
would be an absurdity, because in 
walking around the telescope (pole) 
you would be in all instants of the 24 



'tions might be made about this polar 
observatory with its "great night" and 
equally "great day." It is evident that 
to keep count of itself it would be com- 
pelled to note dates and 24-hour days to 
keep in touch with us; so it would be 
forced to adopt the local day of some 
place like New York. This choice 



62 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



would be free, because a polar observa- 
tory would stand on all the meridians 
of the earth at once. 

We are now in a position to consider 
the next possible — and even probable — 
improvement in our clocks and watches. 
To minimize the next step it might be 
well to see what we can do now. 
Clocks are often regulated by electric 
impulses over wires. Electricians in- 
form me that they can do this by wire- 
less ; but that owing to the rapid atten- 
uation of the impulses it cannot be done 
commercially, over great distances. In 
the history of invention the first step 
was io do something and then find a way 
of doing it cheaply enough for general 
use. So far as I know, the watch in 
the wearer's pocket has not yet been 
regulated by wireless ; but I am willing 
to risk the statement that the editor of 
Popular Mechanics can name more 
than one electrician who can do this. 
A watch to take these impulses might 
be larger than our present watches, but 
it Avould not stay larger and would 
ultimately become much smaller. You 
know what has happened since the 
days of the big "onions" described in 
the third chapter, Fig. 34 ; so get your 
electric watch and make it smaller at 
your leisure. We have made many 
things commercially practicable, which 
looked more revolutionary than this. 
Now throw out the mainspring, wheels, 
pinions, etc., of our watches and reduce 
the machinery part to little more than 
dial and hands and do the driving by 
wireless, say, once every minute. I 
feel certain that I am restraining the 
scientific imagination in saying that the 
man lives among us who can do this. 
I repeat, that we now possess the ele- 
mentary knowledge — which if collated 
and applied — would produce such a 
watch. 

Now I have a big question to ask — 
the central note of interrogation in this 
little scientific conversation with you, 
— does the man live who can make the 
earth automatically record its rotation? 
Do not be alarmed, for I am prepared 
to make a guess as to this possibility. 
A direct mechanical record of the earth's 
rotation seems hopeless, but let us see 



what can be done. You are aware that 
some of the fixed stars have a distinct 
spectrum. It is not unreasonable tc 
suppose that an instrument could be 
made to record the passage of such a 
star over the meridian. Ah. but you say, 
there is no mechanical force in this. Dc 
not hurry, for we have long been ac- 
quainted with the fact that things 
which, apparently, have no force car 
be made to liberate something which 
manifests mechanical force. We could 
now start or stop the greatest steam en- 
gine by a gleam of sunlight, and some 
day we might be able to do as much h^ 
the lately discovered pressure of light 
'Jhat is, we can now liberate the great- 
est forces by the most infinitesimal, b} 
steps ; the little force li1:)erating out 
greater than itself, and that one an- 
other still greater. A good example i^ 
the stopping of an electric train, frorr 
a distance, by \^ ireless. The standarc 
clock in Philadelphia, previously re- 
ferred to, is a delicate instrument anc 
its most delicate part, having the leasi 
force, moves a little valve every min- 
ute, and by several steps liberates th( 
air pressure, 200 feet higher in the 
tower, to move the four sets of greai 
hands. I am not traveling beyond th( 
record when I say that the invisible 
actinic rays could be used to liberate i 
great force; therefore what is there un 
reasonable in the supposition that th( 
displacement of the sodium line in th( 
spectrum of a star might be made tc 
record the earth's rotation? So I sa} 
to the electrician — the optician — tht 
photographer — the chemist and the me 
chanic, — get together and produce thii 
watch. Permit me, with conventiona 
and intentional modesty, to nam( 
the new timepiece Chroncosmic. Foi 
pocket use, it would be Cosmic zuatch 
In the first chapter I allowed to the 
year 2,000 for the production of thi; 
watch, but it is likely we will not nee 
to wait so long. 

Having stated my proposal for uni 
versal time as fully as space will per- 
mit and given my guess as to the com- 
ing cosmic watch, let us in this closm^ 
paragraph indulge in a little mental ex- 
ercise. Suppose we copy the old time 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



6a 



lecturer on astronomy and "allow our 
iiinds to penetrate into space." Blessed 
36 his memory, he was a doer of good. 
How impressive as he repeatedly 
dropped his wooden pointer, and lo ! 
[t always moved straight to the floor ; 
thus triumphantly vindicating univer- 
sal gravitation ! ! ! 

We can think of a time system which 
ivould discard months, weeks and days. 
What is the meaning of the financial 
almanac in which the days are num- 
bered from 1 to 365 or 366? Simply a 
step in the right direction, azvay from 
Uie months and zvecks, so that the dis- 
tance between any two dates may be 
Been at a glance. We would really be 
setter without months and weeks. Now 
let us consider the year of the seasons 
as a unit — long since proposed by the 
astronomers — and divide it into 3,000 
:hrons. Clocks regulated by star tran- 
sits, as at present, would divide this 
decimally, the fourth place being near 
snough to make the new pendulums of 
:onvenient length. This would throw 
3Ut months, weeks and days, local time 
and the date line. Each of these chrons 
ivould represent the same time in 
the year, permanently. For example, 
i64.6731 would mark to a dixmillieme- 
:hron (a little more than one second) 
:he point reached in the year ; while the 
date does not, as I have shown in the 
irst chapter. But you still object that 
his is a great number of figures to use 
11 fixing a point in the year. Let us 
■,ee what it takes to fix a point in the 
/ear now, August 24th, 11-16-32 P. M., 
Vf7C' York standard time. A pretty long 
.tory, but it does not fix the point of 
ihe year even then ; for it would re- 
quire the assistance of an astronomer 
^o fix such a point in any giz'cn year, 
lay 1909. But 464.6731 would be 
iternally right in absolute time of the 
easons, and has only one meaning, 
/ith no qualifications for any year 
/hatever. I believe the astronomers 
hould use a method something like 
lis. Ah, but there is a difficulty in 
pplying this to the affairs of daily life 
;hich looks insurmountable. This is 
lused by the fact that the day and year 
'e incommeasurable. One of them 



cannot be exactly expressed in terms 
of the other. They are like the diagonal 
and side of a square. The day is now 
the unit and therefore the year has an 
interminable fraction ; conversely, if we 
make the year the unit, then the day 
becomes an endless fraction. This 
brings us face to face with the local 
day which we ignored in our scientific 
year unit. We must regulate our labors, 
in this world, to day and night and, 
with the year unit, the chrons would 
bear no fixed relation to day and night, 
even for two days in succession. So 
the year unit and absolute time must 
be left to the astronomers ; but the day 
unit and the uniform world day of Mii- 
z'crsal time as explained in connection 
with Fig. 46 I offer as a practical sys- 
tem. 

I am satisfied that all attempts to 
measure the year and the day by the 
same time yard stick must fail and keep 
us in our present confusion. There- 
fore separate them once for all time. 
Brought down to its lowest terms my 
final proposal is : — 

1st. An equinoctial year unit for the 
astronomers, divided somewhat as sug- 
gested, but no attempt to make the 
divisions even approximate to days and 
hours. This would fix all astronomical 
events, absolutely. A variation in the 
length of the year would not disturb 
this system, since the year itself would 
be the unit. In translating this astro- 
nomical, or year unit time, into clock 
time, no difficulties w^ould be added, as 
compared with our present translation 
of sidereal time into clock time. Deal 
with the year unit and day unit sepa- 
rately and convert them mutually when 
necessary. 

2nd. A universal mean time day of 
24 hours, as now kept at Greenwich, all 
human business being regulated by 
this time. Dates and the date line as 
well as leap years all being retained as 
at present. 

3rd. Weight and spring clocks and 
watches to be superseded by the cosmic 
clocks and watches regulated by wire- 
less impulses from central time sta- 
tions, all impulses giving the same in- 
variable time for all places. 



64 



TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT 



4th. Automatic recording of the 
earth's rotations to determine this time. 

To avoid any possibility of misunder- 
standing, I would advise never count- 
ing a unit till it is completed. We do 
this correctly with our hours, as we 
understand 24 o'clock to be the same 
as o'clock. But we do not carry this 
out logically, for we say 34.30. How 
can this be so, since there is nothing 
more than 24 o'clock? It ought to be 
simply 30 minutes, or hour 30 min- 
utes. How can there be any hour when 
a new day is only 30 minutes old? 
This brings up the acrimonious con- 
troversy, of some years ago, as to 
whether there was any "year one." One 
side insisted that till one year was com- 
pleted there could only be months and 
days. The other side argued that the 
"year one" commenced at and that 
the month and date showed how much 
of it had passed. Test yourself, — is this 
the year 1909, of which only 8 months 
have passed ; or is it 1909 and 8 months 
more? Regarding the centuries there 
appears to be no difference of opinion 
that 1900 is completed, and that we are 



in the 20th century. But can you tell 
whether we are 8 years and 8 months 
into the 20th century or 9 years and 8 
months? It ought to be, logically 1909 
years complete and 8 months of the next 
year, which we must not count till it 
is completed. Take a carpenter's rule, 
we say V4, in. — i/o in. — % in., but do 
not count an inch till we complete it. 
When the ancients are quoted, — "about 
the middle of the third hour" there is 
no mistake, because that means 21/2 
hours since sunrise. If we said the 
1909th year that would be definite too, 
and mean some distance into that year. 
Popular language states that Green- 
wich is on the "first meridian" ; strictly, 
it is on the zero meridian, or 0°. These 
matters are largely academic and I do 
not look on them as serious subjects of 
discussion ; but they are good thought 
producers. Bidding you good-bye, for 
the present, it micht be permissible to 
state that this conversational article on 
Time was intended to be readable and 
somewhat instructive ; but especially 
to indicate the infinity of the subject, 
that thought and investigation might 
be encouraged. 




82 8 



L-^ 



I 




















.^^ -^ce. 



\> 









,v 









..- * '^ 



S^" "^^. 
























''5-2 






s^%. 






v>^n 



'X^^"-^ 






'^^. 















c>' 



^^" ■'^>. 



X*^°^. 



d- 



>\. 






-^'^'" 









.0' 



... ^' 









'^'*/s'o-' v«^ 



. . ^ ■^ ^^° , , . , %^ " - ., 

w .-*./ ^■/•'^' 

'** "^o '"' ' O^^ c<"' '^^/^ 






vOc 



v^" ,0 



, 



'/ 












VV * 







9 "^ 



?' .00,, 






^^\ 









#■ % 






■ ,,„) J « .0 O^ ^°- 'SmM^ * 4 -7*. »■ '"^^^^^^ " !v^ ^. ^^ -A r^ >• ^ 









,0^ c"'^ '^ ♦ ^^ 



' -^^ " ..-^^\^ 



